The Situation Restoration
by TerribleWaitress
Summary: Sequel to The Situation Diffusion. After almost two difficult, challenging, career-altering years apart, Leonard and Penny are back together and ready to return home for their fresh start.
1. You Have Someone to Dance With

**A/N - I couldn't stay away from this story at all, there were just so many ideas floating around in my head. As the sequel to The Situation Diffusion, I would recommend reading that so you understand the context here - but you don't have to, you'll probably pick it up along the way. This story will be both very happy and exciting but also have it's moments where it will get very sad and difficult. There will be some mentions and on occasion, deeper looks, into depression and self-harm at times, so if people would prefer me to put a little Trigger Warning before those, let me know (you can do that by PM if you prefer) - it won't be anything explicit or incredibly detailed, nothing I would find too difficult to put into words, but just in case. That being said, for the most part, this _will _be a happy story! :) So, I hope you enjoy this - we begin in Nebraska. Happy reading! **

* * *

_**Chapter 1: **You Have Someone to Dance With_

Penny rarely let go of Leonard's hand by choice if she had the opportunity to keep holding it. She liked the comfort and closeness of having her fingers linked with his; it made her feel warm, wanted and protected. She liked how it meant people would see that they were together; a couple who were happy to show off their love. She liked how he still held her hands in his, interlocking their fingers, palm to palm, even though he knew what she had done to her hands - he'd seen what she could do to them, and how easily she could do it to herself, but that never scared him off.

But as they walked through the final doors to leave the baggage area, and Penny saw her parents standing, waiting, in the Arrivals lounge, she let go of Leonard's hand. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze just before she slowly released her hold, running her fingers gently through his, before their hands were free. He placed his on the luggage trolley handle, making it easier to steer. Penny practically ran towards her parents, and straight into her mothers open arms.

"Mom," Penny managed to choke out, squeezing her eyes shut tight as tears slid down onto her cheeks.

Leonard followed closely behind, stopping with the luggage trolley besides Penny's father, his heart warming at the reunion of mother and daughter.

Instantly, Wyatt pulled Leonard into a hug, patting him firmly on the back. "Thank you, son. Thank you."

Not entirely sure what to say, Leonard simply returned the hug. He knew that her parents felt the same concern and worry as he did for Penny, and thus they were the two people who would understand him - and in turn, he understood their emotional reactions in this moment. Seeing somebody so important to them, safe, and to have them in their arms, was something he could fully understand and relate to.

They parted at the same time Penny and her mother parted, and Penny went to hug her father, settling into his protective embrace. Leonard hardly had time to get out of their way before her mother's arms were around him in a tight hug, squeezing him as though her life depended on it.

"Thank you so much for taking care of our Penny and for coming out here. _Thank you_, thank you, Leonard." As she pulled away, she kept her hands on his arms in a way that reminded him very much of Penny. "I'm Meryl, by the way. It's so lovely to finally meet you."

"It's great to meet you too." Leonard smiled. "She's really been looking forward to coming back here and seeing you again. Since we made the plans to get a new place in Pasadena and come out to Nebraska, she's just been so excited, it's been amazing to see her like that."

"We are just so... so relieved she's here, and happy, and with you." Meryl said quietly, her lip trembling in a way that was, again, reminiscent of her daughter.

Pulling away from her father, Penny turned to look at Leonard with teary eyes and smudged make-up, but with a radiant smile nonetheless. "Welcome to Nebraska," she said, taking his hands. "I guess you met my mom, then."

"Yeah," Leonard nodded, smiling at her. He brought his hands up to her face, tucking her hair behind her ears, before using his thumbs to softly wipe the tears from her face. Her smile stayed, her hands on his chest, as he gently rubbed at the smudges of mascara to tidy her make-up a little.

"They're so cute," Meryl whispered to her husband, smiling. As a mother, the sight in front of her was all she had ever wanted for her daughter: to find somebody she loved and loved her back, somebody who made her smile, somebody who wiped away her tears and somebody who put her first without so much as a second thought.

"They really are." Wyatt nodded. It was a mixture of pride and happiness that he felt, seeing Penny and Leonard together - in a _real _relationship, both happy with each other and moving forward with their lives.

Turning slightly from Leonard, but not letting go of his hands, she looked at her parents. "Shall we get going? I can't _wait _to show Leonard around and introduce him to Mom's cooking."

"Sure thing, sweetheart." Wyatt nodded, taking hold of the trolley.

Deciding not to protest because he was still a tiny bit scared of Wyatt, and also because he didn't want to let go of Penny's hands, Leonard let him take the luggage trolley. They walked behind Penny's parents, Penny keeping one hand linked with his and the other across her body holding onto his arm lightly.

"Sweetie, you should do up your jacket, it's going to be really cold when we get outside." Penny said, as they neared the exit. She reluctantly let go of his hand so he could do so, in which time she unzipped her handbag, pulling out a blue scarf. "Here, put this on." Handing it to him, she pulled out a pink scarf, putting it on herself.

"How much did you put into your handbag?" Leonard raised a brow as he tied his scarf.

"Not much, I just packed scarves because I knew we'd need them." Penny shrugged, relinking their hands. "It's cold in Nebraska, baby. I know to be prepared."

As the automatic doors slid open to let them out, Leonard shivered and turned to Penny. "Smart move."

* * *

"And the last stop of our tour is," Penny wiggled her eyebrows, her tongue between her teeth, "my bedroom."

"I kind of guessed that, considering it was the only room we hadn't been in yet."

"Come on Leonard, sweetie, can't you just go along with it for once?" Penny frowned, one hand on the doorknob, the other resting on her hip.

"Oh. Oh, yeah, okay. Sure," he nodded quickly, "ooh, how exciting!"

"Better." Penny smiled, before pushing the door open. "Ta-dah!"

Stepping inside, Leonard grinned as he took in Penny's teenage bedroom. It was adorned with posters of boy bands that he had only heard of from his sister when they were younger. There were framed photographs dotted around the various surfaces of the room. On the window ledge was a small collection of trophies and figurines, which he assumed were from cheerleading and probably horse riding. While the bed was made and the room was currently neat and tidy, it wasn't difficult to imagine it covered in clothes and misplaced items. Penny opened a door to their left to reveal a small en-suite bathroom.

"Nice," Leonard nodded. "It's very... _you_."

"Very _me_?"

"You know, with the posters, and the pictures, and teddy bears, all that kind of stuff."

"Oh, yeah, I suppose it is. It was never this tidy when I actually lived here though." Penny giggled, walking over to the window. "It's nice to be back. I'm glad we came here."

Taking a moment to just watch her standing there, at home and happy, Leonard smiled to himself, before walking up to Penny and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. "Me too." He watched her reflection in the window, her lips curled upwards into a smile. Her eyes caught his own in the reflection and they grinned at each other, swaying gently from side to side. Her arms crossed in front of her body to link her hands with his, and she giggled.

"We're dancing to no music!"

"I wouldn't really count this as dancing... and who needs music to dance, anyway?" Leonard chuckled.

"Totally true." Penny leaned back against him as they continued swaying, and she hummed a slow tune for a moment before stopping. "Leonard?"

"Yeah?"

"D'you know we've never danced together? Like... not dancing in a club. But like, properly danced."

"We slow danced at Bernadette and Howard's wedding." He reminded her.

"True... but I mean, like, you know when you see in films and they're just dancing around together? Not slow dancing, not grinding up against each other in a club, just... _dancing _together and having fun. For no reason. Or for a reason, but not caring that they're not dancing like everyone else is."

Not sure where she was trying to go with this, Leonard hesitated. "Umm... are you saying you want us to do that? Or are you just pointing it out?"

Turning around, Penny beamed at him, her eyes lighting up, before she went across her room to the radio set on top of her chest of drawers. Opening the box next to it, she pouted for a moment before pulling out a cassette tape. "Bet you forgot about these bad boys, huh?"

"I can't believe you still own cassette tapes." Leonard shook his head in amusement.

"What! I'm not throwing these away. I used to dance to these songs with Daddy when they were on the radio when I was younger, so he'd put them on cassette tapes for me." Penny explained, popping open the dusty cassette slot and placing the tape in. She grinned as she hit play and music began playing. "Aha!"

He loved how casually sentimental she could be, and the little stories she told him of her childhood. The pace of the music was fairly fast, but not too upbeat or loud - it seemed quite a feel-good tune. Even though he didn't know it, he found himself enjoy it. Holding out his hands to her, he grinned. "Shall we dance?"

"Seriously?" Penny blinked for a few moments, before her grin returned and she took his hands. "Yes!"

For a few minutes, they did exactly what she wanted to: dance. Not particularly well, and for the most part they weren't in time with the music, but that didn't matter to them. They held each others hands, laughing, as they swayed their bodies and kicked their legs about, moving each others arms with their own, bopping their heads and waltzing (sort of, because Leonard wasn't sure if it was the right timing) around her bedroom. They both knew it didn't really resemble dancing and that they must look ridiculous, but in those few moments they were free and happy together - a freedom that either of them rarely felt with such ease.

"That was so much fun!" Penny exclaimed, breathing a little heavier from the exertion, leaning in to put her arms around him, as the cassette made rapid clicks as it scrolled forward through the tape to the next track. It began playing a much slower piece of music, and she smiled softly. "They played this at my parents twentieth wedding anniversary. They always danced to it at home. I was fourteen then and had nobody to dance with, and afterwards Dad came over to me and assured me that one day I'd have someone to dance to it with."

"Well, now you have someone to dance with." Leonard moved his hands to her waist, and they began to sway slowly to the music.

"Mm. Yeah. I do." Penny nodded. "I love you."

"I love you too."

They continued to slowly move together, stepping back and forth with their bodies pressed into each other, getting lost in the romantic undertones the instruments were playing. After a moment, Leonard leaned forward to kiss her forehead, but she lifted her chin up and captured his lips. Caught by surprise, it took him a while before he began to respond to her, realizing that it wasn't just a quick kiss she was after. They continued to slowly move to the music as her tongue gently pushed into his mouth, her arms coming up around his neck as he pulled her tighter to him. Her nails grazed at his scalp slightly as she curled her fingers into his hair, releasing a delicate "mmm" of satisfaction as his lips left hers to kiss along her jaw and neck. A sharp gasp left her as he bit lightly at her neck, and she pushed her hips into his.

Next thing she knew, his hands were travelling up her back, into her hair while he kissed her again, back down her spine as his tongue rolled onto hers, squeezing her ass - which earned him a slightly louder moan - and then back to her hips. Her knees felt weak and she was sure he could tell because as she tugged desperately on his bottom lip with her teeth, he lifted her up, her legs automatically wrapping around his waist.

Moving her lips to his ear, she breathed, "the door... it locks."


	2. Come Here, Little Slugger

_**Chapter 2: **Come Here, Little Slugger_

Leonard was fascinated by Penny's home life. He learned that she really had been brought up as 'Slugger' - playing sports with her father and siblings, fixing tractor engines and even helping build the shed out back. She did, however, admit to him that she was 'Little Slugger', because her sister was 'Big Slugger' since she was older and better at batting than she was. These things evidently hadn't left her, as he accompanied her in climbing over the fence in the garden (she, with ease - himself, not so much) to get coal for the fireplace, and carrying stacks of logs when he could just about handle three, which he dropped when he saw a spider crawling across one. It was a side of her he had never really seen before in Pasadena, but he guessed that whatever problems she had had with her father before had been resolved as she grew up away from her teenage years, as their relationship was very strong. He could really see the likeness between them and his influence on her upbringing.

He could also see a lot of Meryl in Penny - with the exception of cooking (though he had to admit, when Penny really tried, she tended to whip up some impressive meals) - as he had come to learn that Meryl was an incredible cook. They took him to the stables, and he quickly realized that despite how much Penny took care of her appearance, she had no problem at all with getting mucky and dirty. He watched Meryl and Penny ride their horses, amazed by how _good _they were - he knew Penny rode horses, but not to this standard. Even out of practice, her jumps were impressive and he could tell her connection with the horse was really strong. The next day, they managed to persuade him to ride. It was terrifying, but once he got the hang of it, quite enjoyable. He wasn't brave enough to do anything other than a walk, but he commended himself just for mounting the horse in the first place, and getting the helmet on correctly. They mounted up too to go with him, and while they chatted away and tried to explain things to him, he concentrated on what they had told him to do, but did manage to keep up with them and follow their conversation.

They were nearing the end of their visit, with only three days left before they flew out to Pasadena, when Penny's brother and sister came to visit. Her sister, Bridget, lived two hours away with her boyfriend. She must have really altered her lifestyle in the past few years, he thought, because she was nothing like what Penny had told him when they'd first met. Her brother, Scott, was an hour away on the other side of town, close enough to his rehab clinic, but seemed to have improved as well - Wyatt jokingly pointed out that at least the trunk didn't have a smell which gave everything away. Apparently he had just passed his one-year sober anniversary, which definitely impressed Leonard, because he'd always heard… stories that were a lot worse from Penny about him.

Neither Penny, Leonard, nor her parents had spoken about London. Of course, he had explained what he felt necessary to her parents and told Penny what they knew, and agreed to leave the subject matter alone until she felt ready to talk to them about it herself. It was better for her to be in control. So he almost faulted himself for not telling her siblings, even though he knew there hadn't been an opportunity to inform them of what had been going on. But he figured at least they would catch on, or that her parents would have told them. The memo must not have gotten through to Bridget or Scott, because as they all sat in the front room, full from a spectacular dinner, her brother asked "so, what was London like, then?"

Silence echoed through the room for a few seconds. Penny blinked, and the arm Leonard had around her held her tighter to him in an assuring manner. "It was... it was good."

"Is that it?" Bridget asked, confused, before receiving glares from her parents. "What? Am I not allowed to ask or something?"

"No, you can, it's just... it wasn't an easy time, you know? The last couple of months were great though." Penny smiled, before leaning forward and sitting up. "I'm gonna go get some water."

Knowing she shouldn't really feel annoyed, Penny took a few deep breaths as she made her way to the kitchen. She had specifically chosen to not tell people, so she should expect questions and for them not to understand why she wasn't particularly keen on talking about her time in London. They had anticipated this though, and she'd told Leonard that he could tell her family if they asked - just like with her parents. He had been the one to talk to them, to make it easier on her. She preferred it this way. But it still came as a shock when it was mentioned. Slowly, she took a glass and poured herself some cold water, reminding herself that it was okay - her brother and sister weren't asking to make fun of her. They didn't know. And despite how much they enjoyed arguing and teasing each other, they weren't going to pick on her for this. Shakily, she put her glass down for a moment. Leonard would explain to them. He was the one person she felt comfortable talking to about these things, and even then it wasn't always easy. But at least she had him. At least he'd come back into her life. Things could be worse. _Don't think like that, _Penny scolded herself. Still, her mind couldn't help but travel to a place where she was here without him, having to explain things by herself, with no Leonard in her life, only in Nebraska because she needed company… _no, please, stop it. Just stop. _Shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly. _Stop_.

As she gulped down her water, she heard footsteps behind her. A small smile appeared on her face; it was like when she was younger, and her brother and sister would tease her - she would run off crying, and then they'd be sent to apologize to her.

"Penny?" Bridget's voice was quiet.

"Yeah."

"We're sorry. We didn't know." Scott said softly.

Putting her glass down, Penny turned around and shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"Are you okay?" Bridget asked. "You don't hate us or anything, or feel... upset or offended that we asked?"

"No! No, of course not. It just still comes as a surprise and kind of scares me when I think about it, that's all." Penny assured them.

"Come here, Little Slugger." Scott opened his arms up with a grin.

Shaking her head, Penny walked towards her brother and sister. "You are _never _going to let that go, are you?"

"Never."

"At least you're not Big Slugger!" Bridget laughed.

"True. At least mine sounds kinda cute." Penny stuck her tongue out.

"You're both stupid, Slugger is _not _cute. Now come here, both of you Sluggers, before I change my mind."

Scott wrapped his arms around Penny, and Bridget wrapped her arms around the both of them.

"I feel like I'm five again." Penny giggled, before they let go.

"I know, right!" Bridget laughed. "Oh, and, by the way, your boyfriend? Definitely approve. I thought he was gonna get angry at us for not knowing but he was really nice about it."

"Yeah." Scott nodded. "And you can tell he really loves you. I think even Dad's a little emotional about him being in your life. The first time he doesn't look like he wants to shoot someone one of us is dating."

"Since when do you say nice things like that? And at least Bridge sorted out one of the guys on the shooting front." Penny raised her brows, biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh.

"Saved Dad the job." Scott nodded. "And I'm allowed to be nice sometimes, you know!"

"Will you guys _ever _shut up about that?" Bridget rolled her eyes, but let out a small laugh all the same.

"Nope." Penny and Scott said, shaking their heads in unison.

"Yeah, really don't know why I asked. Always the same answer. Come on, let's go back. I'm sure Leonard's having a whale of a time with Dad."

"They've been bonding quite well you know," Penny shrugged, as they began walking back to the front room. "They got on quite well when he met him back in Pasadena, so they're probably fine."

"Yeah, it's Mom's questions he should always be wary of." Bridget nodded thoughtfully. "When she came up to visit and met Andrew, she asked him - while I wasn't there - how many kids he wanted. Like, _really_, Mom?"

"Oh my God! She did that to Leonard too! The other night he told me and I was like... _why_ can't she just ask _normal _questions. Though it makes me feel better that you got that too."

"Yeah. Well, as long as she's not expecting anything anytime soon..."

"Ugh, definitely."

Scott shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You two."

"Oh, you just _wait _until Mom finds out about Michelle!" Bridget cackled.

"_What_?! Hold on here." Penny held her arms out. "_Michelle_? Oh my God, 'just a friend' my _ass_!"

"See, if this is _your _reaction, and Bridge slapped my arm what she found out, Mom is going to be doubly worse." Scott groaned.

"Yeah. Good. It shouldn't be just us getting that treatment." Bridget prodded his arm lightly.

"And on that note, let's stop getting side tracked and rescue Leonard, 'cause now I'm scared of what Mom will have asked him." Penny said, and began walking again to return to the living room.

Bridget folded her arms. "Fifty bucks says she gets pregnant before me and becomes Mom's favorite child."

"A hundred bucks says you were never Mom's favorite child and take fifty pregnancy tests before that happens... and Dad finds them in the trash. _Again_. For the... thirty-third time - I added on ten as an estimate since we both moved out."

"Yeah, well, a million bucks says you're an _ass_."

* * *

Leonard blinked his eyes open. It was cold. _Really _cold. He realized he was no longer cuddled up behind Penny, and turned onto the other side, expecting to find her there. Only she wasn't there. Frowning, he lifted his head slightly. He was still cocooned up in the covers, so why did it still feel freezing cold? Shivering, he sat up properly, yawning, before switching on the bedside light.

He found her standing by the window, which was wide open - explaining why he was currently more ice cube than human. She didn't seem to acknowledge that he had awoken or switched on a light, so he moved his legs over the side of the bed and stood, walking quickly over to her, picking up their robes from the foot of the bed as he went.

"Penny?" Leonard gently touched her arm, which he noted was covered in goose bumps. Her skin was like ice. "Penny, you okay?"

"Hmm?" Penny blinked, a little startled as her mind came back to the present, but after a moment she nodded and smiled at him. "Hey."

"Here, put this on. You're absolutely freezing." He held her robe out to her.

"No, it's okay, I'm not that cold." Penny shrugged.

In that instant, he knew something wasn't quite right. Frowning, he continued to hold out her robe. "Penny, please put this on."

Penny looked at him for a moment, her expression blank, before guilt flooded her face. She took the robe. "Okay."

He waited until she had put hers on, before putting on his own, and trying again. "Penny, are you okay?"

"I... yeah, I'm fine."

Closing the window and drawing the curtains shut, he placed his hands in hers and led her over to sit down on the edge of the bed. "Penny," he said, a little more firmly this time.

Looking up at him, her lip quivered slightly. Taking a moment to control herself, Penny took a few steady breaths before speaking. "I couldn't get to sleep. I kept thinking... I kept thinking about London. I was replaying the day we met outside the theater over and over but each time, it was different, like... I didn't recognize you, or we spoke but you just went back to your hotel and I went back to mines, or you were with someone else, or I was too late because you decided to get a taxi and then you were gone-"

"But none of that is what actually happened." Leonard interjected quickly. "I'm here with you now. Things worked out."

"I know, but..." Penny sighed, almost frustrated with her own mind. "My brother and sister, when they mentioned London, I'm usually okay with it but it just came as a bit of a shock and I guess it was kind of like a trigger, because I could kind of not think about it but in the back of my mind I _was _thinking about it and then I had _too _much space to think about it and... yeah."

"It's okay." Leonard moved closer to put his arms around her, and she leaned her head onto his shoulder. He frowned as a thought came over him. "Does this happen a lot?"

"No. Just tonight. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You just scared me a little. If you can't sleep or that happens again, you know you can tell me, right?" Leonard turned his head to look at her, his face concerned. "Even if you don't tell me _what's _troubling you... I just don't want you to go through that alone. You know how much I worry. Is that okay?"

"Of course. I'm sorry. I just didn't want to wake you up. I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. When I went to the kitchen after they asked I started thinking and I told myself to stop but… apparently that's easier said than done. I don't know what happened."

"That's okay." Drawing small patterns on her arm, he felt her relax slightly into him, and it calmed him to know that the assurance that she could talk to him made her feel slightly better. "Why did you have the window open?"

Fidgeting her fingers together, Penny furrowed her brows. "That was something I did in Pasadena. I'd open the window and just stand there. I liked the fresh air. And the cold was refreshing. I don't feel it anymore; the cold. It just makes me numb. I did it a lot in London too. So I did it here because I knew it would be cold and that helps." Penny bit her lip, shaking her head. "I know, I know, I shouldn't do that. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry. It's okay." All Leonard could think was how glad he was that she had gone for _this _coping mechanism, and that she seemed to be handling this incident considerably well. Naturally, this having been the first time in a long time that something like this had happened, it was a shock to her, and he didn't really blame her. "Are you okay now, though?"

Lifting her head, Penny smiled at Leonard. "Yes, I am. Thank you." She kissed him softly on the lips. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that."

"Don't be. Sometimes these things happen and you just handled it in a way you were familiar with. I'm just glad you're okay."

"I know." Penny nodded. "Let's go back to sleep. Tomorrow we're going to the stables and I want to get you trotting."

"What!"

"It's fine, you'll be on a lunge!" Penny giggled, shoving his shoulder playfully as they moved to get back under the covers.

As he put an arm around her and she rested her head on his chest, Leonard sighed. "Horses are big. I can't believe you're making me do that. You're the only person I'd do this for, you know."

"Good." Penny smiled, closing her eyes. Just that little sentence warmed her up on the inside. "I love you."

"I love you too." Leonard kissed her hair, before closing his eyes too. "Goodnight, Penny."

"Night, sweetie."

This time, Leonard waited for her to fall asleep, listening for her soft snores, before letting himself go to sleep, assured that she felt better now.


	3. I'm Proud of You

**A/N - Not the happiest start to the chapter here I'm afraid. But it's okay, it gets happy, Penny is strong. And Leonard would never let her be sad for too long if he can help it. **

* * *

Blinking his eyes open, Leonard quickly acknowledged that for the second time that night, he had awoken to find Penny missing from the bed. He saw light creeping out from beneath the bathroom door onto the floorboards of the room. As if struck by lightening, his body shot up into a sitting position.

Something was wrong. Something was _very _wrong.

Feeling incredibly awake all of a sudden, his heart racing furiously, he got out of bed, shoving on his glasses, and crossed the room to the bathroom door. He stopped there, hesitating for a moment. What if she was just using the bathroom? He could just be overreacting after the shock of finding her standing by the window, freezing cold, only a few hours ago. But instinct told him that wasn't the case right now. Knocking softly, he waited, listening carefully for a reply. All he could hear was the running of water. And then he heard a soft sob. Urgency increased, he pushed the door open.

"Penny?"

Looking up at him from where she was kneeling on the floor, with her hands under the running tap of the bathtub, her face crumpled. "I didn't mean to do it, I'm sorry! Please don't hate me, please don't hate me, Leonard."

"What happened?"

"I must have done it in my sleep, I had a nightmare, a really bad one, I guess my mind wasn't done overthinking things from earlier, and I just woke up, and I realized I was doing it, and... and in the dream - no, it was a nightmare, dreams aren't like this - in the nightmare, you came to London and it was all the same except you _didn't _come to find me to say you were staying, you said you were going and-and-and then I tried to go after you but I couldn't and I woke up and I realized what I was doing and-"

Dropping down to his knees beside her, Leonard placed a hand on her knee to stop her. He noticed her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "Penny, _what happened_?"

"My hands," Penny choked out, before dropping her head to his shoulder, sobbing.

Leonard's heart sunk, but he didn't let himself freeze. He didn't need her to expand on what she'd just said. She didn't need him to freak out, she needed him to help her. He turned off the taps, stopping the flow of freezing cold water from attacking her hands. Grabbing a small towel from the cabinet behind him, he wrapped it around her hands carefully, patting them dry. Slowly, he removed it, placing her hands on his knees so her palms faced up towards him. He stopped himself from wincing as he inspected the tiny, fingernail shaped fresh cuts in her palms. His heart ached for her. "Are you okay?" Leonard asked softly, taking her hands gently into his, gently caressing her skin with his thumbs in the hopes of warming them without aggravating the raw cuts.

Looking up at him, Penny sniffed. "Are you disappointed in me?"

"No." Leonard replied quickly. "Sometimes these things happen and they're beyond your control."

"But _why_? Why is it beyond my control? I was doing so well." Penny muttered, disheartened. "I can't believe I did that."

"Penny, no, don't do that." Leonard said quietly, though his voice was firm. "You didn't do that to yourself on purpose. Everybody has their coping mechanisms and sometimes, like what just happened, you can't choose them. What matters is that when you realized what was happening, you stopped, and that you haven't consciously done it in a long time."

After a moment of silence, Penny sighed. "It's just such a let down, after I thought I was doing so well. And I'm happy, I promise I'm happy. This is… I don't know. I didn't expect a question like that to bring this all up again. I knew it would upset me but not this much."

"Don't think of it like that. You _are _doing well. It was a difficult evening for you, and the first time you had to deal with somebody asking you about it. We didn't anticipate this, and it came as a huge shock to you. You did what you could but sometimes it's harder than you expect it to be." Leonard smiled at her reassuringly, bringing a hand to her face to wipe away her tears, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm proud of you."

"You are?"

"Yes."

Penny looked at him uncertainly, unconvinced. "Even though-"

"I'm proud of you." Leonard repeated.

Another moment of silence passed before she spoke again. "Thank you."

Leaning forward to kiss her forehead, Leonard took her hands again. "Do you want to go back to bed?"

Nodding, Penny allowed Leonard to help her back up to a standing position. They got back into bed, and she cuddled up into his side, head on his chest. One of her arms bent beneath her body, coming up to rest beneath her cheek. The other she placed on his stomach beneath his t-shirt. She wasn't sure if she was doing it to reassure herself or him. As usual, he drew patterns on her arm, and after a while he brought his free hand to rest on top of hers, but over his t-shirt. She smiled.

"It makes me happy that I have you in my life."

Leonard squeezed her slightly in attempt at a hug. "I'm glad. You make me happy too."

There was silence again, before Penny tilted her head up to see him. "Leonard... I'm scared to go back to sleep in case I do something like that again."

It was times like this when Leonard wished he could take on all her pain so she felt none. He looked at her sympathetically for a while, before an idea came to mind. "Would it help if we talked about happier things to distract your thoughts from earlier?"

"Mm. Yeah. I think it would." Penny nodded.

As it turned out, it _did _help. After an hour of positive memories and laughter, Penny fell asleep. Leonard fell asleep almost an hour later, feeling certain that this incident was a one-time thing that wouldn't occur again. It was out of her system. Her mind was at peace with itself now.

* * *

Upon opening his eyes and seeing immediately on the alarm clock that it was already 10am, Leonard turned his head and noticed that Penny was still asleep. _Thank God, _he thought, breathing a small sigh of relief, _thank God she's getting some sleep now. _Not wanting to wake her, but knowing that they had intended to have breakfast with her family, Leonard carefully shuffled himself out of her hold, standing and watching for a moment to make sure he hadn't woken her.

Pulling on his robe, he grabbed his glasses before padding out of the room and down to the kitchen.

"There he is!" Meryl grinned, looking up from the chopping board in front of her.

"Late night, huh?" Bridget smirked. Leonard realized that without make-up, she looked very similar to Penny, only a little older and with darker eyes.

"Bridget," Wyatt shook his head at his daughter.

"Hey," Leonard smiled meekly from the doorway. "Umm, Penny's still asleep. She had a bit of a... a difficult night, so, I think she could do with a little more rest."

"Oh, no," Meryl frowned, her face full of worry as she walked over to him, "is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's okay now." Leonard nodded. Her siblings and father looked up at him from their places in the kitchen with equally worried expressions. He smiled reassuringly. "I'm gonna go back and stay with her until she wakes up. I just thought you guys should know, in case she's a bit quiet today."

"Of course, thank you." Meryl nodded. "Here, I'll pour some coffee into a flask and you can take your mugs through so you have some for when she wakes up."

"Thanks, that would be good."

He waited as Meryl went about pouring some freshly made coffee into a large flask for them, placing it on a small tray along with a few mugs. The kitchen was silent as she placed a small selection of fruit on the tray too, before handing it to him. "Here you go, sweetheart. I hope she's okay."

"Thank you. I hope so too," Leonard nodded, taking the tray. "I think she will be fine. She's strong. Just a little overwhelmed and upset. But she seemed a lot better when we got to sleep again so, hopefully she'll have gotten enough rest and she'll feel better and gotten it out of her system. To be honest, I thought something might freak her out along the way, eventually - but I didn't expect it to happen here, or now."

"We thought that might happen eventually too." Meryl said sadly. "Are _you _okay, Leonard? It must be difficult for you too."

"It's not easy." Leonard admitted. "But I just want to be there and make things easier for her."

"You're so lucky to have each other. Alright, well let us know if you need anything else."

"Thank you. I will."

He walked carefully back to Penny's room, placing the tray down on his bedside table before locking the door and getting back into bed. She instinctively rolled over so her head was on his chest, an arm over his stomach, the other folded beneath her. He cuddled her in, drawing soothing patterns on her hip. Soon enough, he felt himself lulled back into sleep, her warmth and gentle breathing calming him, reassuring him that all she needed was a little more rest before she could get going with her day. If there was one thing he had learned about Penny, it was that she wasn't one to let things bring her down if she had a method of support. And he was going to be her method of support, because there was no way in hell that he was letting her go through this alone or let it set her back in any way.

* * *

Leonard next awoke to sweet, soft kisses being placed over his shoulder. Smiling, he blinked his eyes open. "Mm."

"Morning, baby." Penny smiled up at him, planting a kiss over his lips, before resting her chin on his shoulder.

"To what do I owe this lovely awakening?"

"Nothing." Penny tapped his nose with her pointer finger playfully. "It's just... I love you. That's all."

"Aww, that's sweet." Leonard smiled, squeezing her arm lightly. "I love you too." He ran his fingers through her slightly tangled hair, brushing it away from her face. "How are you feeling?"

Knowing that he was referring to the events that had happened overnight, Penny shrugged a little. "I'm okay. I do feel a lot better than last night, that feeling of fear and 'what if' has gone now. I think, now, I'm just more upset that it happened."

"That's okay. It was a bit of a shock, and like I said, it's the first time that you've had to think about it or talk about it, it wasn't going to be easy."

"I know." Penny nodded. "Thank you, Leonard. It really does help, having you here to talk to and... just knowing that you're right here, next to me. If this had happened when I was on my own, it would have... it would have been a lot worse."

It pained him to know that this was true, but it also made him feel a lot better that she had told him this, and that he was helping her. "I'm here whenever you need me."

Penny smiled up at him. "Thank you." Using a finger to draw patterns on his t-shirt, she sighed. "Part of me doesn't want to get out of bed. When this happens, you just feel like crap. But it's not as bad as before, when I felt like there was no point getting out of bed, and that it wasn't worth it."

"If you don't want to do anything today, we don't have to. If it's easier for you to just have some time to yourself-"

"No, no, I don't want to do that. I just want to move past the fact that that happened and keep going. I'm not letting that phase me or get in the way of my life anymore. I'm coming out stronger every time. Maybe I'll need your help but sometimes that's what a person needs." Penny raised a brow at him. "And I'm not letting you get away with _not _getting on that horse today. You _will _trot. Off the lunge."

Chuckling, he nodded. "Alright."

"Good." Penny grinned. This faded into a small smile after a moment. "At least the riding gloves can cover my hands."

Bringing her hand up from his chest to his lips, he placed a small kiss on her palms. "It's okay. These will heal."

"Yes. They will." Penny agreed. It hit her in that moment how powerfully reassuring it was to hear him say that. God, what she wouldn't give to have had him tell her that the first time she'd done it to herself. She realized that was something else she had learned over the last few months: you only understood just how strong love was until you suffered without it. Leaning up, she kissed Leonard fully on the mouth, intertwining their hands, before resting her forehead against his. "I really do love you, you know."

Leaving a barely-there kiss on her nose, he smiled. "I know. I really do love you too."

She giggled, before sitting up suddenly, in a meerkat-like fashion, sniffing. "Do I smell coffee?"

"Yeah. Your mom put some in a flask earlier for us. Here." Leonard sat up, and Penny shuffled over slightly so he could lean to the side to get the tray. He placed it between them on the bed, and set about pouring them coffee. "I told them you had a bit of a difficult evening, is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's okay. I'd rather have them know so I'm not bombarded with questions and stuff, after yesterday."

"I thought so." Leonard nodded, handing her one of the mugs of coffee, before taking his own between his hands.

"Ah, coffee." Penny brought the mug up beneath her nose to inhale the scent properly. "Mm." Taking a large gulp, she sighed. "This is so good."

"We have some fruit too." Leonard said, taking an apple from the bowl and biting into it.

"Ooh, breakfast in bed. Sort of." Penny grinned, taking a tangerine in one hand, before setting down her coffee and beginning to peel it. "You know what? Tomorrow, I'll make you a proper breakfast in bed."

"You will?"

"Yeah! It'll be amazing. You'll see. And then, I can be your post-breakfast in bed treat. Also in bed. Maybe with some maple syrup." Penny shimmied her shoulders as she bit her lip.

Leonard grinned. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

"Okay, we're going to take you off the lunge now, baby," Penny grinned, patting Leonard's leg gently as Meryl set about removing the lunge. Having re-checked the girth, she readjusted his leg slightly back into the right position. "Don't be scared, okay? Just do exactly what you've been doing."

"Yeah, yeah... it'll just be... me in control, this time, with no help." Leonard nodded, looking straight ahead, calming himself with the knowledge that he'd managed not to fall off the horse so far.

"It'll be okay. If it feels a bit too bumpy or unstable, just hold the saddle with one hand and the reins in the other like you did the first few times."

"We use her for all the first-time riders, she'll be good with you, it's fine." Meryl assured him, stepping into the middle of the school. "Here we go. Sweetheart, lead him over to A please." She watched as Penny walked a few paces ahead of Leonard, who followed steadily on the horse, to the top corner which had a plastic board reading 'A'. "You probably won't make it all the way round on your first try trotting off the lunge, so just take a few steps walking and then start trotting again. And try not to go off course, though you're pretty good with posture, it's impressive - you should be okay there."

"Really? Thanks. Okay." Leonard nodded, sitting up.

"Just relax, sweetie, and don't overthink it." Penny patted his leg one more time before making her way over to her mother. "Go when you're ready."

Meryl and Penny watched as Leonard took a few seconds to focus himself. That was one of his strengths; no matter how frightened he was, he was dedicated to learning and doing things the way they should be done. On his first attempt, he only managed a few paces. He stopped to gather himself again, and they encouraged him that he was doing great. It took him quite a while, but eventually he managed a complete circuit around the school - by this time, he'd lost count of how many times he'd stopped and started again. Having done a full circuit, he automatically slowed down and stopped in disbelief (he had made sure he could halt efficiently).

"Oh my God, you did it!" Penny grinned, bounding over to him. "I'm proud of you, baby!"

"I can't believe I just did that." Leonard looked slightly stunned. "I thought I was going to fall off the horse about fifty times."

"That was excellent, Leonard," Meryl smiled as she walked over. "Very impressive. Your determination really does work in your favor. I think that's enough hard work for the day."

"Yeah, I think so too." Leonard chuckled.

Penny helped Leonard off of the horse, and Meryl took the reins. "I'll bring her back in, you two go ahead and get washed up. I'm guessing Leonard'll be wanting a nice hot bubble bath after all of that."

"Ooh, a bath does sound good." Leonard nodded.

"Bath it is." Penny giggled, taking his hand. "See you later, Mom."

Leading them over to the tack room, Penny grinned at him. "I'm proud of you, that was really good."

"More like _really _scary." _Worth it to see you so happy, though, _Leonard thought.

"But you made it all the way around! Mom always tries to make sure that by the second lesson you can trot the whole way round the school, and you did it!" She did a little skip of excitement as they went into the tack room and through to the back, so they didn't have to walk all the way round from the outside to get to the main room Meryl would use as an 'office', where Penny also kept her personal riding gear. "Now c'mon, lets get changed out of these boots and all so we can get you your bath."

They pulled off their boots and slipped their feet into the shoes they had walked over in, removing their helmets and setting them down. Leonard had removed his gloves first, but he noticed Penny hesitate for a moment - she had kept them on until last. For a few seconds, he watched her simply stare down at her gloved hands, not wanting to unsettle her, but she made no indication that she was going to take the next step.

"Penny?" Leonard said softly, going over to her, placing his hands beneath hers to hold them lightly. She looked up at him, a slight frown on her face, her eyes begging him. He nodded, understanding, and kissed her forehead. As he gently removed her riding gloves, he could feel her eyes on his face, intent and determined. He knew that she didn't want to have to see her hands; if he hadn't known how upset she was that she'd done this to herself after so long, he'd have been worried that she was struggling with what had happened. This was the only fluctuation in her mood and behavior today since getting out of bed, which reassured him that other than the issue with her hands, she was dealing with the previous night considerably well. Placing her gloves down, he took her hands in his. "Let's go."

"Thank you," she whispered, kissing him gently. Taking a breath, she smiled before turning and leading them out the main door to head back up to her house. "Time to set up a nice bath for your soon-to-be really sore, but still cute, tushy!"

"I think I'm already beginning to feel the soreness," Leonard winced.

"You know," Penny slowed their pace down, turning to face him so she was walking backwards, "It's been a _really _long time since I've done so much riding all at once, so I'm beginning to feel a little sore too." Wiggling her eyebrows, she stuck her tongue out between her teeth, waiting for the little 'aah' of understanding from him before continuing. "What do you say we lock my bedroom door and take this hot bath together, hmm?"

"A hot bath with my hot girlfriend?" Leonard grinned. "Sounds... hot."

"It will be." Penny nodded, biting her lip.

Leonard was glad Penny seemed to know the path back home even when walking backwards, because his mind was too busy being filled with images of the bath they were about to have. Suddenly having a sore tushy was the last thing on his mind.

Squeezing his hands, Penny whispered, "I can massage that cute little tushy of yours better."

Okay, maybe it wasn't the _last _thing on his mind.


	4. Welcome Home

"You know what's going to be fun about coming back to Pasadena? The moment we tell everyone that we're back in the city." Penny said, turning her attention away from the television screen they were all watching, now looking at Leonard instead. She was snuggled cozily into his side, one of her hands linked with his. He had one arm around her, resting on her waist.

"Haven't you told your friends you're coming back?" Meryl asked, glancing over at the couple.

"Well, we were going to, but then we decided... not to." Penny trailed off, shrugging.

"Not even that crazy roommate of yours, Leonard?" Wyatt asked, remembering only too well Sheldon's 'quirks'.

"Considering Leonard's not moving back there, it doesn't really make a difference." Penny pointed out - that had been their argument when they'd made the decision. They would be in Pasadena, but it wouldn't affect Sheldon's current living situation. "We just thought that moving back without telling anyone over there meant that we could have some time to settle back in."

"Makes sense." Bridget nodded, knowing not to question further on their discussions on moving back to Pasadena.

"It would be really funny to see their reactions." Leonard chuckled. "Perhaps we should go to the Comic Book Store on Comic Book Night."

Frowning thoughtfully, Penny nodded after a moment. "Normally I'd say no to the Comic Book Store... but that actually sounds pretty fun. I can just imagine... Sheldon goes to pick up a comic... and _bam_!" She slapped Leonard's leg. "You've got it first, and he looks up and words fail the brilliant Sheldon Cooper because his bestie is back."

"First of all - _ow_. And second of all - my _bestie_?"

"Sorry baby." Penny rubbed his leg where she'd slapped him in her excitement. "Yeah, I would say you are his bestie."

Wincing slightly at the thought, Leonard sighed. "I suppose he is."

"But he's not _your _bestie, because _I _am your bestie... right?" Penny raised her brows pointedly, as if daring him to challenge her statement.

"Bit demanding there." Bridget laughed at her sister. "And what happened to _us _being best friends forever, huh? Forgot about that pinky swear we made when you were six?"

Sticking her tongue out at her sister, Penny shrugged. "You're still my bestie."

"Hey!" Leonard mocked shock. "What about me!" Pouting, he gave her his best puppy dog eyes.

Bouncing her leg, Penny took Leonard's jaw lightly in her hand. "_No_, that's not fair - you know I can't resist that face! Leonard!" Biting her lip, she furrowed her brows when he didn't stop. "Okay, okay, you're my bestie."

Grinning, Leonard fist pumped the air, before throwing an apologetic look at Bridget. "Sorry, not sorry."

"Ah, it's fine, I'm okay with her picking you to be her bestie over me." Bridget said. "However, speaking of couples who are besties..." Gasping, Penny nodded at her sister, and they both smirked in Scott's direction before turning their attention to their parents. "You guys remember Michelle?"

This got Scott's attention away from the television. "Hey!"

"Yes..." Wyatt and Meryl said slowly in unison.

"Well-" Penny began.

"_Don't_-"

"Let's just say she's-" Bridget continued, grinning widely.

"You dare!"

"A _lot _more than _just _a friend of Scott's."

Penny clapped her hands together eagerly as her parents jaws dropped simultaneously. "_What_?"

"I hate you two." Scott glared at his two sisters. "Not you, Leonard, you're cool. It's those two."

"Scotty and Michelle, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Penny sang gleefully.

"Seriously?" Meryl turned to her son.

"You're _really _going out with Michelle?" Wyatt raised his brows.

"Uh... yeah." Scott cleared his throat nervously.

There was silence for a moment, before Wyatt grinned. "Good, because she seemed like a great girl."

"Oh my God I'm so happy for you!" Meryl jumped out of her seat, bounding over to Scott to lean forward and pull him into a hug.

"Michelle is a Head Chef at this fancy ass restaurant. Which is a _huge _step-up for Scott." Bridget explained with a smirk. "Different kind of cooking we'd link to him. And a totally different type of head we'd usually associate with him."

"Bridget!" Meryl scolded, returning to her seat. "Don't talk about your brother like that!"

"Mom, I came home from work one day and _saw _it happening in the back of his truck." Bridget grimaced at the memory. "I'm scarred for life, I think I'm allowed to make fun of him."

"How do you think I feel after the library incident?"

"Can we _please _not bring that up!"

"Wow, I did _not _need that mental image." Penny squeezed her eyes shut, frowning uncomfortably.

"Yeah, that's a bit too much considering I've only known you for a few days." Leonard frowned.

"It's okay baby, I'll get that image out of your head pretty soon." Penny opened her eyes to wink at Leonard.

Wyatt raised a brow. "Not sure this is the kind of talk I want to be hearing from my kids. Especially now they're grown ups rather than teenagers - that was bad enough."

Scott, Bridget and Penny dropped their heads as though it was almost mechanical. "Sorry Daddy," they chorused.

"Just because you're grown up now doesn't mean we want to hear about any of... that." Wyatt shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Unlike his wife, he was less comfortable with these conversations and was always the one to steer away from them.

Meryl rolled her eyes, shaking her head in amusement. "Let's keep the conversations clean for the sake of Dad, okay? I'm going to wash up and head to bed now, so, behave yourselves."

"I think I'm gonna hit the hay too." Penny yawned. "Lots of packing to do tomorrow."

"Yeah... that's why you're going to bed now." Bridget muttered.

"Shut up." Penny rolled her eyes, hitting her sisters leg with the back of her hand as she stood up. Turning to Leonard, she smiled sweetly. "You coming, baby?"

"He will be." Bridget muttered, even quieter, though her smirk expanded.

"Bridget!" Meryl half-scolded, half-laughed as she stood up.

"As you can tell, this family has very few boundaries." Scott said to Leonard, rolling his eyes. "It's fun when you're not on the receiving end."

"Uh, yeah, I can tell." Leonard wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or be swallowed up by the couch. He chose instead to stand up next to Penny.

"It's fine, we all mean well." Meryl nodded.

"We just like to piss each other off." Penny grinned, taking his hand. "Night, guys."

* * *

After a last day filled with packing and plenty of family time, an emotional goodbye at the airport, and an uneventful flight, Leonard and Penny found themselves preparing for descent at LAX. Their hands held each others tightly, nervous and excited for what lay ahead.

"I can't believe we're actually going back." Penny stated quietly, turning her head away from the window to look at Leonard.

"I know." Leonard nodded in agreement. "It seems so... surreal."

"After everything that happened..." Penny sighed, before a smile came over her face. "I'm just so happy that we're going back together."

"Me too."

They heard the telltale sounds of the engines begin to whir beneath them, signaling they would be beginning their landing. "Here it is. Our fresh start." Penny squeezed his hand, bring her other one up to cup his cheek. "No more sadness, or hiding our feelings. No more hands, and no more open windows. What happened in London and in Nebraska... it happened, and I'm not going to ignore it because I don't think that's healthy. But I can learn from it, and accept it. Leonard, I am in a _really _great place right now. So, thank you, for bringing us here, to where we are now."

"I'm proud of you. And so, so happy that _you're_ happy." Leonard replied, moving in to kiss her softly.

Their kiss was interrupted by the bump of the plane's wheels hitting the ground, and they giggled as their noses were bumped together briefly, before pulling away. "I hope this is the last flight we do in a _long _time." Penny stated, nodding as she glanced briefly out of the window to look at the airport. "We're home now."

"Yes." Leonard agreed, as she turned back to face him. "Yes, we are."

* * *

Bouncing on the balls of her feet, Penny gave the taxi driver a nod thank you as Leonard refused the change in order to tip him. He came over to join her and they stepped inside their new apartment building, straight toward their luggage and hand baggage, which was by the lift.

"I am _so _tired," Penny said, hiking her handbag over her shoulder, "but also so excited to see our new place!"

"Me too," Leonard grinned, hitting the up button for the elevator, pulling out the instructions his brother had emailed, which he had then printed in Nebraska, to double check the details. "Second floor, apartment 2C. Top lock first, second one is the one that opens the door."

"Sweetie, you've repeated that about fifty times in the taxi from the airport." Penny giggled. Her eyes lit up as there was a small ding and the doors in front of them opened. "Ooh, elevators here!"

Dragging their luggage into the elevator, Leonard made sure they had everything before hitting the '2' on the selection panel and the 'door close' button. "It's really is great having a working elevator."

"And whose fault is it that we _didn't _have a working elevator?" Penny raised her brows at him pointedly.

"I know, I know." Leonard hung his head. He pulled the keys out of his pocket that his brother had had sent to them in Nebraska just before the lift arrived at the floor of their apartment. Stepping out of the lift, he looked from side to side before seeing their door. "Oh, this way."

Following him as they made their way over to the door, Penny couldn't help the grin on her face. "I can't believe we have our own apartment together!"

"Do you want to unlock the door for the first time?" Leonard offered, holding the key out to her.

Penny shook her head. "No, you should do it."

He nodded, before turning back around. One hand on his suitcase, he used the other to unlock the top lock, pausing for a moment before taking the key to open the door and placing it in the lock. Turning it, he pushed the door open, and stepped inside. "Welcome home, Penny."

Stepping into their apartment, Penny squealed excitedly. "Welcome home, Leonard!"

Pulling their suitcases into the apartment, dropping their bags and shutting the door behind them, Penny bound into Leonard's arms, hugging him tightly. For a moment they stayed in their embrace, arms around each other, chins resting on each others shoulders with smiles on their faces. Leonard pulled away, taking Penny's hands in his. "Let's go take a proper look around."

It was exactly like the photographs and videos they had seen, only a thousand times better because they were really there.

Once they had found an apartment they liked online, Leonard had asked his brother Michael to fly out, check the place out and sort things out for them. They had chosen Michael for this as he wasn't too involved personally with Leonard and Penny's lives, was a lawyer so would be able to deal with the contracts and issues of being overseas, and despite the fact that Leonard thought he could be an ass sometimes, was definitely a trustworthy person. He had flown out to Pasadena with his wife, Alison, and together they had made the process a lot easier for Leonard and Penny than they had anticipated. He guessed that having a place in mind and a list of what they wanted, and what they didn't want, helped with him making sure they'd chosen the right place to live.

The living room was spacious, with hardwood floors, and a wide brick archway, which separated the dining area and kitchen, but still keeping it open plan. The kitchen was bigger than the ones either of them had had in their Los Robles apartments, with a fancy cooker and double-door fridge. To Penny's delight, Michael and Ali had left a bottle of champagne with two glasses and a small congratulatory note for them on the island counter, along with a box of chocolates. A hallway led off from the right hand side of the living room, to the left of which was a raised platform area and a large bay window. Along the left hand side of the hallway was a closet and small bathroom, and at the end was the main master bedroom, with it's own en-suite bathroom. Along the right hand side of the hallway were two slightly smaller bedrooms, with a bathroom in between them. They had decided on three bedrooms on the basis that they would some day need the rooms (which they didn't say), but for now could be used as a spare room/Penny's dream closet and guest room/Leonard's office (which is what they told each other and Michael). It had a modern look to it, with neutral colors so that they could decorate how they wanted to. It was unfurnished, save for the bed and mattress they had ordered and had delivered, and Penny had already been excitedly planning all the shopping they would do to make their apartment their home.

They headed back into the kitchen, where they popped open the bottle of champagne, clinked their glasses together, and opened up the box of chocolates.

"I feel so grown up," Penny said, looking around the kitchen once more, before throwing half of the chocolate she'd been eating back into the box and pulling a face. "Oh, disgusting!"

"So grown up." Leonard laughed.

"Shut up." Penny tapped his chest, before selecting another chocolate from the box. This time, she smiled pleasantly, and finished the other half. "Mm. That one was good. It was strawberry flavor."

"Yeah, I had that one the first time. These little hazelnut ones are good too." Leonard held one out to her.

Biting into it as he held it between his fingers, Penny nodded approvingly. "Ooh, yeah, that one's good." Taking another sip of champagne, she raised her brows at him as she placed her glass onto the counter. "So, what do you say we take this celebration into the bedroom and give the bed a proper welcome?"

Despite how long he had known her, Leonard was always slightly taken aback by her forwardness, especially when it came out of the blue like this. "Now?"

"Yup. I don't want to get too tired before we get to the fun stuff."

"The _fun stuff_?" Leonard chuckled, putting his glass down too. "And you say you're a grown up."

Rolling her eyes, Penny grinned at him with her tongue between her teeth before taking his hands. "I am! I'm just excited. Now come on, Hofstadter, we have a bed, champagne, chocolate and some strawberries in the fridge, in an empty apartment, calling our names."

* * *

It had just gone six in the evening, and Leonard and Penny were still in their pajamas, which they had salvaged from their suitcases at two in the morning when they had decided they were too cold and were struggling to get to sleep. Although the flight from Nebraska to California wasn't particularly long or jetlag-inducing, after flying back from London they hadn't really given themselves time to fully adjust to the new time zone, and they seemed to be paying for it now that they knew they had time to rest and recover.

Having spent most of the day in bed, eating takeaway and sorting out what they could on their laptops, they had agreed that the next day they would get up and buy some proper groceries, since all they had was the basics that Michael and Ali had filled their fridge with. From there, they would begin furniture shopping and collecting their things from storage, unpacking and organizing their home - something they were both equally excited by.

"We'll have to let people know, eventually, that we're back - even if it is just because we need to get our other things from our old apartments." Leonard said, putting his laptop on the bedside table so Penny could rest comfortably against his chest.

"Yeah, I know," she nodded, "but I think it would be really nice to settle in here first, you know?"

"That would be nice." Leonard agreed.

"After we surprise them with our visit to the Comic Book Store, we could have them over here for a little house warming party."

"We're still doing that surprise thing?" Leonard chuckled. "Okay. Sounds like a good plan to me. Then we still have some time with just the two of us here. That'll be good."

"Yeah." Penny looked up at him. "Exactly. I want this to be just _us _for a little while." As she leaned up to kiss him, her phone buzzed and she rolled her eyes. Giving him a quick peck on the lips, she leaned over to read the text. "It's my Mom. She wants to Skype and see how we're getting on."

Getting his laptop again, Leonard placed it on Penny's lap as she sat up. "Here you go. I'll go find something to do."

"Umm, no, you're staying here." Penny said firmly, double clicking the Skype icon on his screen. "You don't get to escape these family conversations anymore."

"Alright." Leonard was touched that she wanted him to be part of these conversations, but also partially concerned because they were both in bed in their pajamas and he didn't want to give the wrong impression to her parents. "Maybe I should put a hoodie on, or something... you want a sweater?"

Rolling her eyes, Penny giggled as she hit the video call button for her parents. "Leonard, relax, they've seen us in our pajamas. And in bed, on the first night, when my parents came to say goodnight and check everything was okay."

"Oh. Yeah. True." Leonard nodded.

The call was answered, and her parents faces filled his screen. "Hey, you two." Meryl grinned at them.

"Hi," Leonard smiled.

"Hey Mom. Hey Daddy!" Penny grinned, waving. "You fix the truck yet?"

"Yup, it's working again." Wyatt nodded. "How're things with you two?"

"Really great. We've just been having a lazy day, catching up on sleep and stuff. Haven't really gotten out of bed, but we're going shopping tomorrow and getting things started."

"I can tell you've been in bed all day." Meryl laughed. "That's good to hear. Definitely get some rest, it's been a tiring week for you two. How was the flight?"

"It was fine - exciting to come back." Penny smiled.

"She slept through most of it." Leonard added with a laugh.

"That's our Penny!" Meryl said fondly. "Is the apartment everything you were hoping it would be?"

"It's _perfect_," Penny gushed.

"Just what we wanted," Leonard agreed.

"Well, we're glad to hear that." Wyatt smiled. "We just wanted to check in on you both and see how things were. We'll let you get back to your relaxing, or whatever you're up to. We're going into town so we'll post the things you left here up."

"Thank you, Daddy. I'll call you guys in a few days time to let you know how things are going."

"Yes, please do."

"But don't take things too quickly, make sure you get your rest and really adjust to the time zone, I don't think you managed to do that over here, it was so busy all the time. We were just so happy to see you."

"Don't worry, we're taking things slowly and just easing ourselves back into everything as it goes." Leonard assured her parents. He knew they were probably worried about their daughter, and that the big changes might unsettle her, but he didn't want to bring it up: she seemed to be doing well, and he didn't need it to be brought to the forefront of the conversation. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"It will be more than fine, it will be _perfect_." Penny grinned.

"I'm glad you're so positive about this all and so happy about it. You deserve it. Both of you." Wyatt said fondly. "Best of luck to you both, and enjoy all the shopping."

"Oh, we will!" Penny giggled.

"Call us soon, okay?"

"We will, Mom."

They said their goodbyes, and Leonard placed his laptop back on the bedside table. Penny resumed her position leaning against his chest, sighing contentedly. "Mm. Just being in bed with you all day is the best. And what makes it even more perfect is remembering that this is _our _apartment."

"You're really enjoying that word, aren't you? Perfect."

Penny looked up at Leonard, smiling, her eyes shining with happiness. "That's because everything feels perfect at last."


	5. Peace of Mind

Glancing up from her brand new laptop to look at Leonard, who was sat opposite her at the new dining table they had put together that afternoon, Penny drummed her fingers lightly for a moment, slightly nervous. "Leonard?"

"Yeah?" He looked up from his screen when she didn't reply instantly like she usually would. "What's up?"

Glancing briefly at her hand, Penny frowned before her eyes returned to his. "I want to see my therapist."

Instantly, he began to worry. After the incident in Nebraska, he hadn't observed anything wrong with her or anything that should bring up cause for concern. But he was fully aware, now, of how good she could be at hiding her feelings. "Why? Is something wrong? Are you okay?"

"Relax, sweetie, I'm fine." Penny assured him, leaning forward to place a hand over his to calm him down. "I'm sorry, that came out… there's nothing wrong. I'm great, I'm happy. Which is why I want to see her. I want to tell her that I'm happy now. She helped me through _so _much, I want to let her know that she was right about you and thank her for everything she did. I want her to see the change in me. I want that file to say that I made it."

"Oh." Leonard released the breath he was holding, relieved. Slowly, a smile formed on his face. "Okay. I think that's a good idea. She'll be proud of you."

"Thank you." Penny smiled. Dropping her head, she chewed on her lip for a moment. She heard him resume typing on his keyboard. "What I did in Nebraska still bothers me a little. Not much, but sometimes I think about it. It's not affecting me but... I want to know why it happened and if it's normal. If it could happen again."

He looked up at her, not saying anything, brows raised ever so slightly. Part of him wanted her to explain more; if it bothered her, he wanted her to tell him why so they could talk about it. But she was taking the step she knew would help her most: talking to her therapist. And he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. She wasn't letting it affect her; getting too worried over it would only make her begin thinking it was worse than it really was. What she needed was for him to be supportive and understanding. It was her step to take and she would tell him if she needed him to take it with her, but right now she was perfectly capable of doing this for herself and by herself. He gave her a small smile, placing his hand over hers and stroking it with his thumb. "Okay."

Lifting her head, she smiled gratefully. "I love you."

"I love you too." Leonard gave her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze, before returning to his laptop, not wanting to force her to dwell on the situation for too long. Sometimes those three words were all that needed to be said.

Returning her attention to her own laptop, Penny quickly emailed her therapist. The quicker she got this out of the way, the better. It wasn't a pressing issue, and it wasn't affecting her, but she felt she needed that peace of mind that what she had done wasn't something she should be concerned about. She'd come so far, she didn't want anything to set her back - that incident, as a one-off, she could accept. Email sent, she went back to her previous task of sorting out her college transfer information so she could continue studying at the level she'd reached in London, back in Pasadena again.

After a while, Leonard grinned excitedly. "They university want to meet with me tomorrow! They said they'd like to have me back on the team, but have a few things they want to discuss and some advancements in my role and grant proposals they have in mind for me."

"That's amazing!" Penny grinned, eyes lighting up with pride for him. "I'm so proud! When would that be?"

"In the afternoon. I told them that I haven't told people that we're back yet and they said it's fine, it's going to be a private meeting and they can give me the time I need before coming back to work."

"Oh, that's so good of them. See, they want their little genius back. But you're mine, and mine alone, just for a little while longer, okay?"

"Of course." Leonard nodded, grinning.

"Good. Okay, I think that's my college stuff done, now it's just them who need to sort the stuff out." Penny leaned back in her chair; they had purchased chairs to match the wood of the table, with padding so they were comfortable to sit at, the material matching the rug they had beneath the table. "Shall we go watch something on our new fancy ass flat screen television? Cuddling on our super comfortable couch where none of the spots are Sheldon's so we can lie down properly? And I'll make some tea in our pretty new kettle?"

"Can't think of anything better right now."

"Awesome. I'll - ooh, hold on, she emailed back." Penny turned her attention to her laptop once more as she saw an email from her therapist had come through. "She can fit me in tomorrow morning as one of her patients rescheduled to the afternoon... that's perfect! I'll just let her know I can do that."

"I'll make the tea, then." Leonard said as he got up, touching her shoulder gently as he passed by her.

* * *

"Penny! Oh, it's so great to see you again!" Ellen, Penny's therapist, grinned as she stepped out into the small waiting area outside of her office. The woman who stood up to greet her was a totally different Penny to the one she had seen previously: smiling, visibly happy, standing tall and proud, and had clearly put effort into her appearance. It was with pride that she could see she was no longer the Penny who would come in wearing sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, looked worn and upset, and would slouch over to her with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Hey, Ellen," Penny grinned, walking over to her.

They hugged, and Ellen instantly noticed that Penny was also better physically - while she hadn't been worryingly thin, she had definitely lost weight, which she had now put back on to a healthy size. "Come on in," Ellen gestured to her office. They stepped inside, and Penny took a seat in her usual armchair. "You want a cup of tea or coffee?"

"Just a water will be fine thanks." Penny sat back in the armchair. It had been a long time since she'd been here. What a relief it was to sit here and not feel the urge to burst into tears, or anxiously pull her sleeves over her hands.

"You seem to be doing _incredibly_ well." Ellen commented, handing Penny her glass of water before sitting down on her couch and picking up her notepad. She had a strong feeling that Leonard was going to be part of this story. "You want to catch me up?"

"Yes." Penny nodded eagerly, taking a sip of water before setting the glass on the table. "I guess I'll start where we left off. As you know, I got that acting job in London. It was really tough at first and for a _long _time, the only reason I got out of bed was for work. But eventually I let myself… kind of enjoy things again. Like, getting out of my apartment and exploring the city. I think the fact that I had an acting job, like I always wanted, helped me a little. I wasn't better, but... I learned to cope. Yeah, I was coping. Not happily, not easily, but… I was doing what I could. I did my Psychology class there and that helped to keep me focused."

"That's good." Ellen looked up from her notepad, where she'd been taking notes. "I was worried, you know, that moving to London would really shake you up in a bad way."

"It did. I was all alone and I hated myself for doing a stupid thing, but I'd never wanted an acting job so badly. Or maybe it was everything over here in Pasadena that I wanted to escape so badly. Eventually I found that fight in me to restore some normality in my life. I went there to get away from everything that had happened here, I had to allow myself to at least try. I guess having worked so hard for that job reminded me why I was doing this all."

"Good, good."

"I managed to get things on track. My cast mates were really nice and I love acting so I was enjoying work. Studying was something I realized I enjoyed in Pasadena, so it made sense to continue doing it here, and it helped. I preferred to be alone, and I never wanted a relationship, I didn't go out drinking or socializing, and maybe that wasn't all healthy, but for me it worked. I even stopped cutting into my hands. This was all... a year and a half, a little more than that."

"I'm glad that you stopped that. See, you're stronger than you always thought you were. That's a very brave move you made, moving to London, and having your job to motivate you was probably what you needed to begin healing."

Penny nodded. "Probably. Anyway, here's the good bit of the story."

"Continue."

"One evening, I was leaving work, through the Stage Door as usual. And he was there. Leonard was there."

"Leonard came to London?"

"No. Well, yeah, he was in London. I was so... I didn't even think about it, I just started walking towards him. I did the thing with my hands a little because I was so nervous. And I said his name and he said my name and it felt amazing. He was there for work and he'd passed by the theater, seen my name and a picture of me, and saw the show that evening after dinner with his boss. He was just trying to figure out which way to go then. I invited him back to my place."

"You invited him over to your apartment?"

"Yeah. And I know, it sounds crazy, and it was a _huge _step, but... I was so, _so _happy to see him, for him to be right there in my life again. He found me, not intentionally, but he found me." Penny smiled. "We had the best time together. Being around him was like... I could be myself again. We slept together that first night, he stayed over, and I told him I loved him and he said it back... I hadn't felt so comfortable, honest or happy in a _long _time. It took me five years to tell him I loved him, and this time we moved quickly, and it was… it didn't scare me. It felt right. I wanted him to know."

"See, and you were worried that if you ever saw him again things wouldn't go well."

"I know. But I worry about these things."

"Yes. So how did things go after that?"

"Amazing. We were together the whole time. I can't explain how... how it felt to finally, _finally _be able to feel happy and have company that didn't make me want to close off, and not limit myself. I told him the next day, when we went to his hotel, about what happened. You were right. It was so much easier to tell Leonard."

"I told you it would be. And if you told him that soon, you must really trust him."

"I do. I really do." Penny nodded earnestly.

"So, you met, went to yours, and went to his hotel the next day - what happened after that? You say you were together the whole time. What do you mean by that?"

"Leonard had a few weeks left in London - they were there in between their trips out to sea. That whole time we were together. Except for... you know when you're so... I was so happy to see him again and be with him that I forgot why he was there in the first place. It just left my mind completely that eventually he was meant to go back out to sea. So when he told me, it... I ran. I got out of there as soon as I could. And for a few days I went back to the old Penny. I would go to work, and then lie on my couch. I couldn't sleep in my bed because it reminded me of him. I'd eat a little, and watch television, but that was the extent of it. I was upset, and terrified, and I could feel myself going back down that horrible spiral and I couldn't stop. I cut my hands. I cut my hands a lot."

"Oh, Penny..."

"But he came back. Leonard came back to me. He gave me time to think and he came back. He told me he was going to stay. And, God, hearing him say that, it was... it was like I was dreaming. But he was serious." Penny paused to take a sip of water. "He saw my hands. I could see how much it scared him that I would do that to myself. I told him why I did it. He didn't let that scare him away. He still loved me even though I did that to myself. A few weeks later, the cuts were gone, and I gave him the whole story about my hands."

"That is incredibly brave of you."

"I could tell him because I was happy, and I felt that he deserved to know that part of the story so he understood - and should he need to, he could help me." Penny took a breath before continuing with a smile on her face. "Things got better and better after that. A clean slate. I got the fresh perspective I had been searching for. We decided that once my contract was over, we would return to Pasadena - first, we visited my parents in Nebraska. All of that time meant we were able to find a place to live, and for Leonard's brother, Michael, to sort things out - he's a lawyer. So, we live here now, in Pasadena. We have our own apartment together and it's amazing. We're just starting to furnish it and make it into our home. Life is perfect right now."

"Aw, I am so glad to hear that, Penny. You deserve that, after the tough journey you went on, you deserve every bit of that happiness - and so does Leonard."

"Yes. He does. He definitely does." Penny agreed. "I just have this one problem."

"Go on."

"In Nebraska, my brother and sister visited. Leonard told my parents about what happened, and Scott and Bridget didn't really know much apart from I moved to London. One night they asked me how it was and..." Penny sighed. "It really freaked me out. I started thinking about what it would have been like without Leonard, but I told myself to stop and it was fine. Then I tried getting to sleep and I couldn't, I kept imagining all these scenarios where Leonard wasn't there. I opened the window to make it cold. That really worried Leonard. But he was amazing, he told me that if something was bothering me to just let him know, even if I didn't want to talk about it. I went back to sleep thinking everything was okay but the next thing I knew, I was waking up from a nightmare in which Leonard... Leonard didn't stay and. I couldn't get him back... Ellen, I woke up and my hands were in fists and my nails were digging so hard into my palms. As soon as I realized, I ran to the bathroom to run them under cold water. I wanted to wake myself up and make the pain go away, I never realized that it hurt so much to do that. I felt horrible. Leonard woke up again and he found me, he reassured me that it was okay, and we spoke about happy things and after that I was okay, just upset that it had happened." She paused briefly to think and draw herself back. "Is that normal? Why did it happen? It's not a massive issue because it hasn't happened again and I haven't been upset like that apart from that one time, but... I just want to know."

Ellen waited for Penny to take a few sips of water began she began talking. "I'm sorry to hear that that happened. But it can happen, yes. It was something you did a lot when you were hurting, so unconsciously, when you were hurting in your dream, you instinctively went for your coping mechanism. From what you've told me, you are in a wonderful place with your life right now, and that was the first time you had had to think about something like that. The shock got to you. But now that it has happened, if you ever feel like that again, you can prevent it from progressing."

"How?"

"You said it yourself: telling Leonard about it, and thinking positive. Don't let yourself dwell on what upsets you."

"Do you think it will happen again?"

"No. You know now what you triggers are, and you know how to overcome them. And should you be having a particularly difficult time, you know you have somebody by your side to help you. And if you do find yourself needing that extra bit of help, you know where to find me."

Nodding slowly, Penny began to smile. "I do. Thank you."

"Does that help?"

"It does. I just needed to give myself that peace of mind."

"Good. You're doing so, _so _well, Penny, and have come a very long way since we first met. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you. I feel like I have too."

"That's even better. Did you want to talk through what you told me, or are you okay with where it is?"

"I don't know. To be honest I just wanted to tell you how happy I am." Penny shrugged. "Why? Did you have things you wanted to ask me?"

"Just out of interest, so I can keep the file detailed. You don't have to answer them and they have no effect on where you are now - just some points of interests I flag up as a therapist, to conclude things."

"Oh. Okay, sure." Penny shrugged again, this time lightly; relaxed now that she knew it wasn't out of worrying concern that she had questions.

"You said you didn't socialize much when you were in London. Did you have friends out there? Did you keep in touch with your friends here?"

"I didn't keep in touch with anybody here, I wanted distance. And I had friends in London, but I preferred to spend most of my time by myself. Not in a way that made me lonely, just... social situations kind of pressured me a little, and I wasn't used to that, so I kept to myself."

"Okay, that's fine. It's good you didn't force yourself into that if you didn't feel like you could. And you say you didn't want a relationship, and you slept with Leonard the first night you were reunited. Did anything happen in between that? You told me, two years ago, that you had no sex drive at all, after Leonard left for his second trip. Did that ever change?"

Blushing slightly, Penny bit her lip. "Umm, I didn't sleep with anyone. But after a while in London, I did get it back. In my little photo collage I had a picture of me and Leonard and one night, things just... yeah." Penny smiled awkwardly.

"And things are okay now?"

"Oh yes." Penny smirked.

Ellen chuckled. "Eager reply there, guess I have no reason not to believe you."

"Nope." Okay, she was kind of proud. "It's all good."

"Glad to hear it. Now, you told me all of that very easily - almost without faltering."

"I did."

"Is there a particular reason? Was it this easy with Leonard?"

"It was harder with Leonard because we have an emotional connection and I was afraid that what I told him would hurt him. But at the same time, it was easy, because I knew he would understand and he would listen to me. With you... I know you've seen me at my worst, so now, I can tell you these things, because I'm past them. Right here, those things have happened and they no longer affect me, apart from what I learned from them. I feel like I've come a long way from them and it helps that I can see the difference in myself, and that _you _can see it too. I don't feel this fear of admitting how bad things were to you because you already know and you know that that's not me anymore."

Ellen smiled. "I'm so proud of how far you have come. I hope you are too. I know you had a difficult time at the beginning, and a lot of the time you felt stuck, but you made it and, as your therapist, I am _very _impressed and so happy for you."

"Thank you. I am proud of myself."

"And I'll bet Leonard is proud of you too. More than anybody."

"He is. He tells me from time to time, and it reminds me why I always kept going. When he tells me he loves me, or that he's proud of me, it reminds me of why I bothered, in those two years, with fighting to keep going, of why I let myself open up to you, of why I worked so hard to get myself out of that place to the person I was when I met him again. Everything from there… where I am _now, _that's his doing, and… I am always going to be thankful for that."


	6. Comic Book Store

Exhaling slowly, Penny finally rolled over to sit up and recover the comforter from the floor. She brought it up to cover her and Leonard's naked bodies, before snuggling into his side. Smiling, she let out a contented "hmm" when he began to softly trace her hip. "That was nice," she said, bringing a hand up to his chest.

"Nice?" Leonard chuckled. "I don't think you can use that for what we just did."

Smirking, Penny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you really can't." She giggled. "But it feels nice _now_."

"It does. I think we'll definitely be getting a good nights sleep."

"Mm. Definitely." Penny agreed, nuzzling her head between his chin and shoulder. "We've got a big day tomorrow."

"We do, yeah," he said, "it's going to be weird seeing everyone again."

"I sort of liked it being just the two of us," Penny admitted quietly, drawing patterns on his chest. "All my life I thought it mattered how many friends I had and how popular I was. But I realized... all that matters is that I had the _right _friends. For two years, even though Amy, Bernadette and the guys are all amazing, you were the only one who really mattered to me when it came to who I'd do anything for to have back in my life, and who I wholly missed. You were the person that kept me going and fighting to get better, even without being there. It mattered to me that a part of you was still with me." She sighed, lightly scratching at his skin with one finger. "It'll be really nice to see them again but... I guess I've gotten used to it being either just me on my own, or just the two of us together."

"Aww." Leonard squeezed her closer to him, kissing her hair. "You'd get bored just being around me all the time, though. It'll be nice for you to see the girls again." He said, not wanting to point out that really, she needed friends around her when her life was changing so much, in case it sounded too blunt and too harsh to her ears.

"Guess so. I _am _looking forward to it. I'll probably feel more excited about it tomorrow when I see them." Penny frowned. "I hope they don't hate me for just leaving and not talking to them."

"They won't hate you. You did what you had to do." Leonard assured her.

Thinking for a moment, Penny's hand dropped from his chest to drape across his stomach. "Can I be honest with you, Leonard? About this?"

"Of course you can."

"I'm worried they're going to ask me too many questions. I don't want to freak out again, but... they'll want to know, they'll be curious. They're going to want an explanation and a story and-"

"It's okay, honey," Leonard said quickly, holding her closer to him and placing a reassuring kiss in her hairline, "they know what happened, they'll be excited to see you and they'll know to be careful about what they ask. And if it _is _too much, just remember, I'm right there. I'll even punch Sheldon in the face if he's too insensitive."

Giggling, Penny looked up at him. "As if you would _actually _punch him in the face." She was always grateful for his ability to take her mind off the things that caused her worry.

"I would if he was horrible to you about this." Leonard told her. "It'll be okay. Still going with this... surprise turning up at the Comic Book Store idea?"

Nodding, Penny placed her head back on his chest. "Yup." She grinned to herself as a memory filled her mind, closing her eyes. "On my second date with Stuart, we were making out and I said your name."

"I know."

Her grin faded quickly. "_What_?"

"Stuart told me."

Her brows furrowed for a moment in annoyance, before she shrugged and relaxed again. "Of course he did. Oh well. I thought that would be a fun thing to tell you since we were talking about the Comic Book Store."

"It was fun. It was even better hearing you admit that, than Stuart telling me. Though I have to say, I did feel _pretty _smug when he told me."

"Uh-huh, I'll bet you did. I was so embarrassed that I had done that for _so _long. But now it's just funny. Poor guy. Worked out for you though, so, you know." Penny giggled softly, before yawning.

"Are you sleepy, per chance?" Leonard chuckled, turning his head to the side slightly to nuzzle his face in her hair and close his eyes too.

"Mm. A little bit. Very."

"Me too. You've worn me out."

"Ditto. But at the same time you've given me something good to dream about." Penny smiled to herself. "Love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

Stuart had been more than surprised to see Leonard walking into the Comic Book Store with Penny. After greeting each other, and giving him a short explanation, they told him they planned to surprise their friends. Just as they had suspected, the day on which they visited hadn't changed. Although their initial plan had been to hide behind comic books or stand turned away from the door, they had changed their minds. Penny had pointed out that Amy and Bernadette would be unlikely to come in with the guys, and she wanted them all to be there. She knew the girls would drop the boys off because on that day, she would usually have met them for coffee in the evenings while the boys were at the store. With that in mind, figuring the extra car in the parking lot outside would clue them in a little, they stood by the window of the store where they knew Amy and Bernadette would park, looking at an action figure in casual pretense.

It was the strangest mix of heightened nerves and excitement that the two of them had ever felt. As first Amy's, then Bernadette's, and then another they didn't recognize but assumed was Raj's, cars arrived and parked in front of the store, the expressions of shock when they looked up into the window of the Comic Book Store was like a canonical pattern of shock.

Amy and Bernadette didn't wait, pushing their car doors open and running outside and into the store, practically pouncing on Penny and hugging her tight. Sheldon, Howard and Raj simply stared in disbelief for a moment, before grinning (a sight Leonard rarely saw on his ex-roommates face) and getting out of their cars, hurriedly walking toward the Comic Book Store. They rushed over past the girls to Leonard, pulling him into a hug too.

It was the first time Sheldon Lee Cooper had ever hugged Leonard.

Penny looked over and clapped her hands to her mouth, tears in her eyes. "Oh my God, he's hugging you!"

"Aww, Sheldon!" Amy cooed proudly, letting go of Penny and Bernadette to see the wondrous sight before their eyes. Although Howard and Raj were hugging him too, Sheldon had gotten their first.

"Yes, I am hugging Leonard. It is a social convention to greet somebody whom you have not seen in a long time, and noticed the absence of in your life, with a hug." Sheldon explained, as they all let go of Leonard to give him some air. Leonard looked stunned, as though he wasn't quite sure what had just happened. Sheldon walked over to Penny, shifting his weight awkwardly before saying "it's good to have you back, Penny," and pulling her into a hug too.

"He's hugging me!" Penny squealed, flapping her hands in excitement.

Pulling back, Sheldon cleared his throat. "I think that's enough of that."

Bernadette grinned, before turning to Leonard. "It's nice to have you back, Leonard." She and Amy went over to hug and greet him properly, while Raj and Howard went to hug Penny in greeting.

It was a surreal moment. Never had Penny expected Howard to hug her without some inappropriate sexual comment, or Raj to be able to greet her so freely without being drunk. She'd also never expected for Sheldon to hug Leonard - _and _her. All in one day.

The door opened, and a brunette with a slightly timid and nervous expression on her face walked in.

"Oh!" Raj rushed over to her, grinning. "Leonard, Penny, this is my girlfriend. Her name is Yvette. Yvette, these are my friends I told you about, Leonard and Penny."

"Hey. It's nice to meet you both." Yvette held out a hand, which they shook in turn.

"Yvette is a _vet_," Sheldon whispered to Leonard out of the corner of his mouth. "It _rhymes_. Isn't that great?"

Unfortunately for Stuart, the Comic Book Store was forgotten as Raj suggested they go out for dinner - food was on him, as a welcome back present. Everybody wanted to share a car so they could get to catching up, but realized that with four cars and eight people it would be difficult and unfair, so they travelled in couples. Penny was simply grateful that they weren't eating at the Cheesecake Factory. Once arrived, they were seated promptly and given menus. They boys all sat to Leonard's left, who was sat next to Penny, who had the girls sitting to her right, the square of chairs around the table concluding with Raj and Yvette opposite the newly returned couple.

They insisted that the rest of the gang catch them up first. Raj explained how he had met Yvette after Howard and Bernadette had struggled with taking care of Cinnamon for the second time - this time they had accidentally let her eat chocolate. Yvette told them she had sung to Cinnamon that time and joked that that was what had healed her. Bernadette told them about the new drug she was working on, which had initially caused some trouble when she'd dropped a dozen vials of raccoon virus. Amy informed them that she had been asked back to Caltech for another project, which Sheldon was incredibly pleased about. Sheldon spoke about his recent paper and how he had now seen all of Babylon 5, insisting that it was only because he needed something to watch during the hiatus of another show. Howard said that he'd been invited back up to Space, but had failed the physical tests.

Eventually, just after their food arrived, the talk turned to Leonard and Penny, and Amy asked, "So, how are you two doing?"

They both knew that none of the gang had known they were back together. They didn't know that they had found each other in London, that since then they'd practically been living together, that they had been to Nebraska, bought their own place in Pasadena, that they had been here for a few weeks already. And yet it felt strange that their friends, the people who had once known everything about their lives, suddenly knew very little.

Leonard turned to Penny, smiled at her and squeezed her hand encouragingly. Penny smiled back at him, before turning back to look at her friends. "We're doing great." Pausing, she looked helplessly around her friends, and then back at Leonard. She wanted to say more, but the words wouldn't come.

"We found each other in London and have been together since then. We bought an apartment here in Pasadena," Leonard continued for her, caressing her skin with his thumb, "and Penny starts filming for a national commercial in two weeks time. I go back to Caltech in a month."

"A national commercial? That's amazing!" Bernadette grinned.

"Well done, bestie." Amy patted Penny's free hand.

"A toast to Penny on her commercial! And for Leonard returning to Caltech!" Raj announced, lifting up his glass.

"Aww, thanks guys." Penny smiled thankfully, as they raised their glasses and clinked in the middle.

"Raj tells me you went to London," Yvette said, not being as filled in on the situation as the rest of the group were on the previous events, "how was it? I've always wanted to go there."

"Umm..." Penny bit her lip. Panicked, she looked at Leonard. He gave her a small smile, leaned in and whispered 'I'm proud of you' in her ear. She squeezed his hand and nodded, taking a moment before turning back to the group. She could feel her friends watching her. She didn't blame Yvette for asking. She just wished they would stop staring. But Penny was determined to do this. Maybe it didn't seem like a big deal to them, but for her, it was a huge step. "I... fine. London was fine." _Focus on the happy things, _she told herself, _you can tell them how you and Leonard reunited. That made you happy, and your friends should know this story. _"I, uh, I was working there. I was doing a play."

"Wow, that's exciting!"

"Yeah. I... one evening I was leaving, and that's when I saw Leonard. He was outside the theater trying to find his way; he'd come to see me in the show after seeing my name outside, on his way to dinner with his boss. I invited him back to my place. Since that night we've been together practically the whole time." Penny felt Leonard squeeze her hand reassuringly, as if to tell her she was doing well. "We... the Science Museum was fun. And the shops are great. But to be honest what will always stand out for me of the place is the moment I saw Leonard again."

Sensing that there was probably a reason Penny wasn't so enthusiastic to tell her about London, and why her friends were being so quiet and listening so intently, Yvette smiled politely and nodded. "That sounds nice."

"It was."

"We're glad you two found each other again." Howard said, with an understanding smile.

"And that you're so much happier now." Amy added, once more patting Penny's hand.

"Well, I'm glad about that too." Penny giggled nervously. Her friends had, of course, witnessed her decline and tried their best to help her - and even if she _couldn't _bring herself to tell them her story, and even though they hadn't been able to help her as much as they had wanted, she was always going to be incredibly grateful for them having been there for her, and for being here now.

* * *

The girls had arranged to meet for coffee in a few days time while the boys would play video games over at 4A. Sheldon informed Leonard that he could come and go as he needed to collect his stuff, and that he hadn't moved any of his stuff - and if he had, it was accidental while he was cleaning. Penny and Leonard promised they'd arrange a housewarming party as soon as they had finished moving all their stuff into their new apartment and adding the finishing touches to decorating it with new furniture and accessories.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Penny mused, dropping her handbag on the chair beside the front door before pulling off her jacket.

"No, it wasn't. Even when Yvette asked about London, you did really well." Leonard took her jacket to hang up beside his. "And it was nice to see everybody again."

"It really was." Penny agreed. "You were right... it's nice having them back in my life. And I can't believe Sheldon hugged you!"

"Me neither! In all the years I've known him..." Leonard shook his head, still in disbelief.

"I hugged you the first day that we met." Penny said, coming over to him and wrapping her arms around his waist. "We were saying goodbye at the door, and Sheldon had gone to his room because it was officially past his bed time. And then you said bye again, so I hugged you."

"You remember that? Even _I _had forgotten about that."

"Of course I do." Penny stated, as though it were obvious. "It's you."

* * *

Opening his eyes slowly, Leonard instantly smiled as he felt Penny in front of him, still snuggled comfortably with her back against his chest and his hand in hers over her stomach like when they had fallen asleep.

Since it was the first time seeing all their friends again, and the first time anybody had asked her about London since her sister, he had been worried that they might once more hit a bump in her moving forward. He hadn't been _expecting _it to happen, but he had been worried that it _might _happen - not that he had told her. But waking up, to find her still in his arms, sound asleep and snoring softly, he felt all of that worry go away. He hadn't even realize he could physically _feel _the worry, until it left him in that moment.

He gently kissed her bare shoulder, before nesting his head back in the pillows and closing his eyes again. "I'm so proud of you," he whispered into her hair. "I love you."

* * *

Next time Leonard blinked his eyes open, he was met with Penny's grinning face. For a moment, he simply smiled, taking in her natural morning beauty. The messy hair, the make-up free face, the glint of excitement in her eye for another day of building their life together. "Morning, beautiful," he said after a while.

"Morning, baby." Penny kissed him lightly on the lips.

"You seem very happy this morning."

"I am. We're buying a desk for your office today! _And _we're getting my couch delivered from my old apartment, and packing up our things there to take here." Penny reminded him eagerly. "And I was thinking about how... to most people, this wouldn't really be exciting, all this moving and packing and transferring. I used to be so scared of the idea of living together, remember? But when I asked you in London, I just knew it was right, and that fear never came back. It's exciting."

"How could I _not _remember?" Leonard chuckled. "It is exciting. I'm guessing you want to get going fairly soon?"

"Yup! I even planned out what I'm wearing today while I was waiting for you to wake up. It's so much fun visualizing the closet room and knowing it's real."

"You know what's weird? When you're not all grumpy in the mornings before you've had your coffee."

"Yeah, that'll probably come back in a few weeks when we're both working and actually have to get up early rather than just lazing around and waking up at our own leisure." Penny shrugged, scrunching her face. "You really miss that?"

"No, it's nice having you all happy and awake in the mornings. But it'll be fun having grumpy morning Penny back, because that makes me laugh. Except for when you hit me because you want coffee and I don't want to get up."

"Well _someone _has to make the coffee." Penny said, sitting up. "But it's okay, I'll go make it now. Ooh, and some breakfast! Okay, you stay here, I'll whip something up for us, sweetie."

"Naked?" Leonard laughed, as she stood up from the bed to reveal her nude form. "Probably not the best when you're cooking."

Grinning, Penny turned around to face him and put her hands on her hips. "You like?"

"Very much." Leonard nodded slowly.

"Too bad," Penny shrugged, walking over to the back of the door to get her robe and pull it on. "This body is needed in the kitchen. So... don't have too much fun without me. Here." She passed him the remote control for the television atop the dresser before tying her robe and heading back to the door, swaying her hips. "You catch up on your documentary, sweetie, unless you've had a change of heart and feel like listening to me sing along to my iPod."

"Documentary it is."


	7. Really Awesome News

"You know when you have _really _amazing sex, and the next morning you wake up and you're still on this high and you just _know _you're going to have the best day? Like, you're just dancing around in the morning before you've even had coffee, having a shower feels like dancing in a waterfall, and everything is just a hundred times better?"

Bernadette and Amy peered curiously over their coffee cups at Penny, uttering in unison a confused and wary "yeah?"

"Well, that's what it's like, every day. That's how I feel every single day."

"Boy, that's a lot of sex. And I thought Howie had high expectations..." Bernadette exhaled, shaking her head.

"No, no! That's not the point, I'm not saying we have sex every single night, I'm saying that feeling you have afterwards, that's how I feel like, all the time." Penny clarified with a giggle. "It's the only way I could think of to answer your question."

"I asked how you were." Amy said. "I wasn't banking on _that _explanation. A simple 'great' would have sufficed."

"Oh. Sorry. I guess I'm just... I like being able to say I'm happy, you know?" Penny grinned. Bringing her cup up to her mouth, she had placed it back on the table, wide-eyed, almost as soon as it had touched her lips. "Hold on, let us just backtrack a little here. Amy, you know what it's like to feel awesome after sex? _You had sex_?"

"Oh, that she did, _that _she did." Bernadette nodded, raising her brows before shuddering slightly.

"With Sheldon, right?"

"Of course with Sheldon!" Amy said quickly, blushing.

"Umm... _what_?" Penny's hand slapped onto Amy's arm, gripping it tightly. Amy suddenly felt very sorry for Leonard. "Oh my God, Amy Farrah Fowler, how have you not told me about this yet? You little vixen, you! This is so exciting! I want to know _everything_! Okay, no, wait, not everything. Just like... that parts that won't make me want to flush myself down the toilet."

"I'm not... okay, you remember... you remember that time we all played Dungeons and Dragons?" Amy began. While shy, she was excited to be able to finally tell her bestie about this.

"Instead of going to Vegas? Yeah, I remember that." Penny nodded impatiently, bouncing her legs up and down in anticipation.

"Well, we were all playing it again. We had Stuart round, and Yvette was there too... okay, no, that's not relevant, I'll move forward."

"What _is _relevant is that me and Howie were still there after everyone else clearing up the game." Bernadette added with a frown. "Boy I wish I hadn't suggested we stay to help clean up after Sheldon and Amy disappeared off to his room."

"Oh, come on, as if we haven't encountered worse when arriving at your place!" Amy pointed out to Bernadette, before turning back to Penny. "Anyway. Yes, Sheldon and I went to his room again to put away his special dice. As a sort of joke, I brought up that time when we played... we played our own version of the game. So we did that again. And, I guess, that time, things went well. _Really _well. Though there was no nibbling, sadly."

"_Eww. _Could have done without that last part, Ames." Penny pulled a face before shaking her head. "So, you actually did it? Like... _coitus_? With Sheldon Cooper?"

"Yes."

"Oh my God I'm so happy for you!" Penny squealed, jumping up all of a sudden to move round the table and wrap Amy in a hug. "When did this happen? Was it more than once? Did you like it? Did _he _like it? Where are you guys even _at _now?"

Waiting until Penny had sat back down and wasn't squishing her to death, Amy bit her lip. "Umm, it was a few months ago but we've done it again once since then. We want to take this development slowly. So we're still in the same place we were before, only we've seen each other naked. Which is so much better than just seeing his underwear." Amy's eyes glinted at the last part.

"Okay, no, maybe I don't want to know loads about this." Penny frowned, shuddering slightly with Bernadette. "But, I'm really happy for you, Ames."

"Thanks, bestie." Amy positively glowed. "But, going back to the original topic, I'm going to conclude that your answer to my question of how you are as... good."

"Not just good. Great. Amazing. Perfect." Penny grinned a grin so wide that Bernadette and Amy recognized as one as far from the look on her face before she'd left for London as could possibly be.

"We're so happy to hear that." Bernadette smiled.

"Yes, it's wonderful to see you like this." Amy nodded sincerely.

"Aw, thank you." Penny smiled back, not letting the conversation get too serious by continuing. "We're throwing a little house warming party next weekend and we'd love for you guys to come and see the place."

"Ooh, that sounds like fun!" Amy said eagerly.

"It really does. I can't wait to see you guys new apartment." Bernadette agreed.

"What's it like living together?" Amy asked.

"It's the best. Not only is it warm enough to walk around naked in Pasadena, but because our room is right at the end of the apartment, we never have to be quiet. And I get to see Leonard every single night and morning. It's so much better than living alone." Penny said thoughtfully, her grin fading slightly, before she shook her head away from those thoughts. "Yeah, it's the best. I have a whole room for my closet, and Leonard has his own office, and the kitchen is amazing, and we have this awesome coffee maker, and we get the entire couch to ourselves... I love it."

"A whole room for your closet? Wow, that's impressive." Bernadette nodded approvingly. "I have... a closet that I share with Howie. And he has more pairs of pants than I do."

"Yeah, well, we had two spare rooms so we agreed one would be my dream closet and the other would be Leonard's office, and both of them can double up as guest rooms."

Amy looked over at Bernadette who had the same thoughtful expression about the mention of the two extra bedrooms, but they both knew not to bring this up. Even though things seemed to be going well for Penny, they were still worried overly serious of forward discussions could be sensitive to her. "That sounds nice."

"Yeah, it is. So if you need to crash after the housewarming party, you're very much welcome to. We have one of those fold-out couches in the closet, though it's more like Leonard's place to sit while I ask him for his opinion on fifty outfit choices." Penny laughed to herself. "Anyway, I have to go, I'm meeting with the college administrators to finalize my transfer."

"Aw, it's so exciting that you're going to be doing a _degree_!" Bernadette grinned.

"Yeah, it is." Penny nodded as she stood and put on her jacket. "I mean, obviously, it's not like you guys and your PhD's, but... for me, it's a big step, and I'm really excited about it."

"You should be." Amy confirmed assuredly. "Good luck, bestie."

"Thank you!" Penny leaned forward to hug Amy, and then Bernadette. "I'll text you guys later."

* * *

"Leonard!" Rushing into the bedroom, having run from their front door, Penny looked around, pausing in confusion. "Where are you?"

"In the bath," Leonard's voice came through the bathroom door.

Dropping her handbag and jacket on the floor, she proceeded into the bathroom. "Aww, a bubble bath!" Penny smiled at the sight of him, relaxed, bubbles up to his neck, holding his Kindle up in front of him.

"I wanted to try out these new bubbles you bought." Leonard shrugged, leaning over to close the Kindle cover and put it on the floor.

Penny picked it up and moved it to the safety of the towel shelf before speaking. "Or you just knew that in the time I text you to say I was leaving the college meeting and getting home you had time to run a bath and get in, and that I'd want to join you." She put her hands on her hips, raising her brows, before a wide grin formed on her face. "Excellent work, Hofstadter." She made quick work of removing her clothes, before getting into the tub with him, leaning against the opposite end of the bath so she could look at him.

He grinned at her smugly, tilting his head up a little proudly. "See, I knew you'd like this."

Blushing slightly, Penny nudged his leg with her foot. "Shut up." She rearranged the bubbles around the top half of her body so his focus would be on what she had to say before speaking. "So, anyway, I have some _really _awesome news."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Penny nodded. "The college is giving me a scholarship!"

"Oh my _God_! That's amazing!"

"I know, right! I didn't even apply, they just told me that they've selected me for it and I just have to fill out this paperwork and send it back to them. How great is that? Like, I had the money to pay for it, but... this is even better! I can go shopping with that money! And get a gym membership!" Penny clapped excitedly. "Or spend it on pretty things for the apartment!"

"That's amazing, Penny. I'm so happy for you. But don't spend all of it on shopping," he chuckled, "but you definitely _can _do a bit of shopping, since you've also got that commercial coming up and I start work again in a few weeks."

"Yeah, I'm thinking of putting most of the commercial money into savings. You've taught me well with these things." Penny giggled, before biting her lip. "Now, we're both naked in the bath, but I am the wrong kind of wet, and I think you should fix that."

* * *

"You look... wow."

"I know, right?"

Penny twirled around and into Leonard's arms, leaning in to give him a quick kiss, her hands splayed on his chest. He held her hips, grinning.

"You don't look too bad yourself," she winked, her pointer fingers lightly scratching at the material of his lilac button-up shirt. It matched the lace lilac collar of the white dress she was wearing, which was also lace with a silk under layer. Where the collar parted, the dress parted too, down to just under her breasts, which Leonard had decided when they'd gone shopping was his favorite feature of it. Penny cocked her head to the side. "I think we should pop open the champagne."

"A little early for that, isn't it? Nobody else is here yet."

"Perhaps, but it _is _our apartment, we should get the party started." Penny's eyes twinkled. "What do you say?"

"I say we go pop that bottle of champagne open and use our fancy new champagne flutes."

"Ah, the new champagne flutes!" Penny exclaimed excitedly, pulling away from him to head toward the kitchen.

Leonard took a few seconds to just stand there and appreciate just how happy she was. He absolutely adored just how excited she was, and how even the smallest things would cause her to light up. The girl who had once feared commitment and moving in together was now the woman who eagerly had them furniture shopping and telling everybody along the way that they were living together. Yes, there had been multiple unfortunate events in between, but she had gotten there and he was proud. What had happened could have easily scared her off even further, but she had grown and learnt to accept that and move forward with this new part of her life. Penny was happy; that knowledge was all it took to make him smile. Seeing it, feeling it, and hearing it every day simply made him the happiest man alive.

* * *

With Amy and Sheldon settled in Leonard's office, and Howard and Bernadette in Penny's closet, Leonard and Penny retired to their bedroom, both flopping down onto the bed. She had kicked her heels off hours ago, and he had unbuttoned the top of his shirt, so she curled into his side with a hand on the warm skin of his chest as she yawned.

"It's so weird putting the Shamy in one room together and knowing they're going to share a bed." Penny mused, scrunching her face. "Feels wrong."

"Agreed. It's such a shame Sheldon's not talkative, I wanted to know more when he told me. He just left it at 'yes, Amy and I had coitus.' and moved on."

"Oh, no, seriously, like I told you on the phone that day when I called you from the car, you did _not _want more details." Penny shuddered.

Frowning thoughtfully, he nodded. "Suppose you're right, actually. Wonder how long it's gonna take to get over the shock of them sharing a bed. Or a room."

"Definitely. And probably, uh, _forever_." Penny sighed. "Does it disturb you slightly that they might have _coitus _in your office?"

"Does it disturb you that Bernadette and _Howard _might have sex in your closet?"

Shooting up into a sitting position, Penny scowled at him. "That is so gross_. _I hate you."

"You started it." Leonard accused.

"So disgusting," she shuddered, pulling a face, before standing up and unzipping her dress. "For that, we're not showering together."

"Seriously?"

Letting her dress drop to the floor, she kicked it to the side as she gave him a stern look, folding her arms over her chest. "Yes."

He shrugged, and sat up, leaning against the headboard. "Alright then."

"Ugh, no, come on, you were supposed to protest!" Penny moaned, her resolve dissolving.

"I know." Leonard grinned, getting up from the bed and unbuttoning his shirt.

"You are _evil_." Penny squinted her eyes at him, frowning.

"Alright, but I'm an evil _genius_." Leonard reminded her, tapping Penny's nose as he walked over to her. "Now c'mon, we need to shower before the Shamy and the Smurfs use up all the hot water before we do. I haven't changed the settings so it's probably going to run out at some point."

"I don't want to shower in cold water!" Penny gasped, eyes widening. "Why didn't you turn it on so it doesn't run out when you knew we'd have four extra people! I know I only told you like an hour before that they were staying but _still_! You should be glad Raj and Yvette went home and didn't stay in the front room like I offered!" Penny accused, jabbing him lightly in the chest, before she suddenly had a change of heart about what was currently important. "Wait, never mind! Hot shower! Go go go, Hofstadter!"

* * *

"Howie?"

"Hmm?"

"What do you think of Leonard and Penny?"

"What do you mean?" Howard asked, closing his comic book and turning to look at his wife.

"I mean... look at this place. We're staying in Penny's dream closet." Bernadette gestured around the room. "Did you ever imagine them... _here_?"

"To be honest? I never even imagined Leonard being able to ask Penny out. This is all just an eternal plot twist," he gave a small chuckle.

"No, seriously. After they broke up, did you ever imagine them back together and living in this amazing apartment so happily together - given how much Penny was terrified of the idea before?"

Taking a moment to think about it, Howard leaned back against his pillow. "I didn't expect it to happen this fast. I wanted, for their sakes, for them to get back together, but I didn't think it would happen just like that. Though I suppose, with Leonard and Penny, they've always known that eventually it would happen, and it made sense for them to come back here together and start afresh. Why?"

"I don't know. It just feels really weird. I just remember how badly Penny was hurting and... her turnaround just amazes me, that's all." Bernadette smiled sadly. "I always knew she was a strong person, but when she was alone and had hit rock bottom, I got scared that maybe she wouldn't find that strength anymore. But she did, and I'm so glad that she did, because nobody deserves it more than she does. It's just... overwhelming, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Howard nodded, putting an arm around Bernadette. "But I think when you have someone you love that much, and somebody who loves you back the same way, it means you muster up all the fight in you and strive to get through even the worst of things. Right?"

"Right." Bernadette nodded, and turned her face to look at him. "I love you."

"I love you too." Leaning forward to kiss her, their lips met. The kiss deepened, but it was he who pulled away first. "I'm not sure I want to be having sex in Penny's closet."

Bernadette, who had looked confused for a moment, suddenly nodded and pulled back. "Good point."

* * *

"Amy?"

"Yes?"

"You're tugging on the covers."

Rolling her eyes and scoffing, Amy shuffled back slightly toward the middle of the bed to free up more of the covers. They didn't often share a bed, so the rules of bed space were still an issue between them. "This bed is smaller and so are the sheets, I can't help it."

"That may be the case, but we simply have to accommodate for the change. There are less than ten centimeters between me and the edge of the bed, that's my contribution to the situation." Sheldon pointed out.

"Alright. I'll try not to sleep closer to the side of the bed tonight."

"Thank you."

A few seconds of silence passed, in which Amy guessed Sheldon had gone back to sleep, before he spoke again. "It still makes me kind of sad that Leonard came back but didn't want to live with me anymore."

"It's not that he _doesn't _want to live with you," Amy explained with a small sigh, "it's just that he wants to live with Penny because he loves her, wants to take care of her, and spend the rest of his life with her."

"Do you think they'll get married?"

"Eventually, yeah."

"I think they will too." Sheldon continued to stare at the ceiling for a while longer. "They have a very nice apartment. I was never a fan of Penny's taste but they have done a decent job with this place."

Amy smiled to herself. She adored Sheldon's sweeter moments, such as this one. People rarely got to see this side of him, and she was proud to be one of the few that did. "They really have."

Once more, Sheldon was silent, this time for longer. Amy had started to drift off, but his voice retrieved her from her half-awake, half-asleep state. "Amy?"

"Yes?"

"Would you like to move in with me?"

For a moment, she simply lay there, eyes wide, frozen. There was no noise so he guessed he was frozen in anticipation of her answer. When he didn't retract his question, a smile grew across her face. "Yes. I would like that."

"Alright then. Good. I'm glad." Sheldon smiled up at the ceiling, before closing his eyes. "Goodnight, Amy."

"Goodnight, Sheldon."

Hardly believing what had just happened, Amy grinned. Sheldon Cooper had just asked her to move in with him in the home of her bestie. Her best friend was home and happy and in love, and her own boyfriend wanted her to live with him. Life really did get better and better.


	8. Life is Full of Little Surprises

"Leonard? I'm home!" Penny called, trying to contain her excitement as she closed the front door and hung up her jacket, dropping her handbag on the chair and her keys in the bowl.

She heard his voice respond with "I'm in the front room. How was it?"

Not waiting to reply, Penny answered as she made her way through to him. "Oh my God, it was _amazing_!" Grinning, she sat down next to him on the couch as he muted the television. "Like, _so cool_!"

"That's good! C'mon, tell me all about it."

"Really? Okay!" Penny shuffled closed to him, folding her legs beneath her. "So, I have my own trailer - my _own trailer_!" She slapped his arm excitedly. "My phones in my bag, I'll show you a picture later, it has my name on the door and everything! When we start shooting the commercial I'm gonna have a team to do my hair, make-up, my nails, my tan... it's going to be so good! You'll get to come home from work to a pretty Penny! For now we're just going over it all and doing little screen tests and seeing how things are going to look before we start shooting it. Oh my God, it's so exciting! This is like the best thing ever to happen to my career!"

He grinned at her excitement. "That sounds amazing! I'm so happy for you." Leonard squeezed her hands gently. "And I always come home to a pretty Penny anyway."

"Aw, that's cute. But I will look _super _pretty." Penny winked. "And don't argue that because I am _really _excited about the fact that for once I won't have to put the effort into my own make-up for an acting job, and come home still looking awesome!"

"Alright, I look forward to seeing you all dolled up." Leonard chuckled.

"All dolled up? Leonard, what era do you think we are in?" Penny raised a brow in questioning of his word choice, before her excitement took over once more. "Anyway, it's going to be so _awesome_. I'm going to get some coffee and a mug for my trailer and a few snacks and a photo of us to keep in there... it's going to be so cool! I'm just _too _excited!" Penny eyes widened as she grabbed his arm, her grip strong. "Oh, you should so totally come and see it! Maybe in a few days when I've made it all pretty... yeah!"

"You're so adorable when you're excited like this." Leonard smiled. "Of course I'll come and see your trailer."

"Yay!" Penny clasped her hands together beneath her chin, before dropping them and getting up. "I'm going to go get changed into something more comfortable and pick something to wear for tomorrow. What are we having for dinner?"

"Roast duck. It's in the oven, fifteen minutes left. I'll let you know when it's done."

"You already started it? Ah, I love you!" Penny leaned forward to kiss him on the lips, a hand on either side of his face, before skipping off down the hallway to her closet.

* * *

"You may be wondering why I chose for us to meet ten minutes earlier than our usual Tuesday meeting time." Sheldon began, placing down his menu. "And Leonard, you may have noticed that our usual choice of restaurant for this evening is no longer the Cheesecake Factory - we have been eating here instead ever since Penny left."

"Yes, I noticed." Leonard nodded. He couldn't be too annoyed about Sheldon pointing that out, considering he'd been the one to drive them here; it was just nice to be able to have dinner out with his friends again._  
_

"Good. Now, my main point of order." Sheldon paused, briefly looking around at his expectant friends. "I have asked Amy to move in with me."

"Dude!"

"No _way_!"

"Oh my God!"

"Calm down, it's not _that _unbelievable." Sheldon picked his menu back up, throwing them a look as though it wasn't a big deal at all. "I simply wanted to make you aware that she would be, as of this weekend, living with me."

"That's amazing, Sheldon." Leonard said, picking up his own menu too, grinning. Who would have thought - Sheldon Cooper moving in with a girl. He was impressed, and incredibly proud. "When did you guys decide this?"

"Before we went to sleep, at your house warming party."

"That was like, three days ago! How come you didn't tell us before then?" Howard asked in disbelief. "How did Bernie not even tell me this? She can never keep her mouth shut!"

"That's because Amy and I agreed to wait a few days to tell you all. I'm sure she's telling Bernadette, Penny and Yvette right now too." Sheldon smiled, before giving his breathy laugh with a look of delight. "Ooh, Bernadette and Yvette, that rhyme is a classic! Just as good as Yvette the Vet."

"This is so exciting!" Raj grinned, looking over his menu, ignoring the rhyme on his girlfriends name. "They day has finally come, Sheldon Cooper is going to be living with a girl!"

"Are you okay with her taking your spare room, Leonard?" Sheldon asked across the table, his tone serious. "It just sprung upon me that I should have asked you first if that was okay with you."

"Oh, yeah, that's fine. Now that I live with Penny I am _more _than happy to give that room to someone else. Especially Amy." Leonard nodded. "Now shush, I haven't been here before, I need to look at this menu properly."

* * *

"I have amazing news." Amy announced, as the waitress left, having just brought over their coffees. Not waiting for her friends to respond, she beamed, her eyes shining with glee. "Sheldon and I are moving in together!"

"_What_?"

"Oh my God!"

"Wow!"

Grinning from ear to ear, she looked around at her friends. "I know!"

"How... what... when did you decide this?" Penny asked, her brows raised high in surprise, not sure what she wanted to know first.

"At the end of your house warming party, before we went to sleep. We discussed the two of you - Penny, and Leonard, living together - and then he was quiet for a moment, and he asked me."

"Aww, that's so sweet." Bernadette grinned.

"I'm so happy for you two!" Yvette smiled. Being newer to the group and having spent a lot of time with Amy and Bernadette over the past year and a half, she was very excited for this development. Although, this made her very aware that couples-wise, this just left her and Raj out of the whole 'living together' situation. Not that she was _waiting _for it to happen, but it did bring it to her attention.

"This is so crazy, first you guys have sex - _twice! __- _and now you're moving in together... aww, the Shamy is growing." Penny practically beamed, gripping Amy's hand. "I'm so proud of you guys."

"Thanks, bestie." Amy lifted her shoulders up to her neck shyly. "I'll be taking Leonard's old room. D'you reckon he'll be okay with that?"

"Oh, of course, he's not going to be needing it anyway." Penny shrugged. "We'll just go over and make sure he hasn't left anything there." A suddenly very vivid memory rushed into her mind, seemingly out of the blue. Five years ago she'd flung her sheer cami off somewhere in his bedroom, and to this day, hadn't found it. It was probably best to locate it and remove it before Amy moved in. She liked that cami. Or, in retrospect, the response she got from Leonard when she wore it. "When do you move in?"

"This weekend."

"That's so soon!" Yvette gasped. "Are you gonna need help moving your stuff over there?"

"Ooh, yes, that would be nice." Amy nodded. "Thank you."

"Me and Leonard'll come over tomorrow then to go through his room and make sure it's all good for you."

* * *

"Excuse me? Excuse me, sir, are you Leonard Hofstadter?"

Turning around, Leonard frowned in confusion. The woman who had stopped him was not one he had seen before. Long, dark brown hair fell in curls stopping just above her waist. She was dressed in a pair of black skinny pants, a V-Neck white t-shirt and a smart grey blazer with flat black pumps. His first assumption was that she worked at the university and he'd just never formally met her. Still, why she was hunting him down when he hadn't even started back yet was beyond him. "Uh... yes?"

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to shock you like that! I'm Ellen King." She held her hand out, before realizing simply stating her name wasn't going to answer the look on his face that questioned who on earth she was. "Penny's therapist."

"Oh!" Leonard let out a small laugh before shaking her hand. "Right, hi. It's nice to meet you. Umm... can I just ask, how did you know who I was?"

"You don't think Penny's shown me a million pictures of you?" Ellen smiled. "I'm sorry if I caught you at a busy time. I just wanted to introduce myself. And don't worry, we agreed when she saw me recently that if I saw you we could talk."

"Oh, yeah, she told me that." Leonard nodded. "It's okay, I was just here to drop off some dry cleaning and then collect it again once it's done. My task of the day." He added with a laugh.

"Okay, that's good then. If you have the time and would like to, perhaps we could talk over coffee or something and get acquainted?"

"Why? Is there something wrong with Penny?" Leonard asked, instantly worrying. She was doing incredibly well. Wasn't she?

"No, from what I can tell Penny is doing perfectly."

"She is." Leonard confirmed. "Funnily enough, perfectly is currently one of her favorite words. It's cute."

"Good. Exactly. I just thought maybe you wanted to talk since this was obviously difficult for you too. And, you know, just so I can get to know you a little since you're a bit part of Penny's story. Not like a therapy session, just... somebody to talk to. I've found people tend to find having a casual conversation with their partners therapist can be helpful and reassure them."

"Really? Okay, sure, that would be nice, I guess." Leonard shrugged. "D'you mean, like, now, or...?"

"Now works for me, but if that's not good with you then that's fine."

"Yeah, now is good for me. I was just going to grab a coffee now over there." Leonard gestured, the idea of having somebody to talk to seeming like more and more of a good idea the more he thought about it.

"Sure."

Leonard led Ellen over to the coffee place, sharing a small joke over them both agreeing that no matter what time of day it was there seemed to always be a need for coffee. They were seated in a booth near the back and immediately ordered a coffee each.

"Penny tells me things have been doing really well here in Pasadena since you've both returned." Ellen began.

"Yeah, they have." Leonard grinned proudly. "She's got her national commercial - actually she began that a few days ago, they're going to be filming it in the next few days. I'm going over to see her trailer tomorrow, she's so excited about it all."

"That's great. I'm so glad things are working out for her. Thank you," Ellen smiled as the waitress brought over their coffees, before turning back to Leonard. "How're things going for you?"

"Great. I start work in less than two weeks so I'm looking forward to that. I'm just really enjoying having the time to relax right now." Leonard said, stirring some sugar into his coffee.

"And by relaxing that includes keeping an eye on Penny."

"What?" Leonard stopped stirring his drink, but didn't look up. He sighed. "I care about her and she's going through a lot of changes. After everything she told me and what happened in Nebraska... I can't help it, I worry."

"I know. I get it, and I don't blame you, Leonard. But you should know that eventually, when you're working again and she's busy, you'll spend less time together, and you'll have to get used to not being there for her twenty-four seven." Ellen smiled reassuringly. "She's very strong. And this'll be tough on you both, these changes; so don't think that you're the only one who worries. Penny cares about you a _lot_, she's probably constantly thinking about how this is affecting _you_. If there's anything I know for certain about Penny, it's that she cares for you and worries about you more than anyone in the world."

"Really?" Leonard raised a brow. That was something he had never thought about. Yes, he knew that Penny cared about him. But he'd never thought about _her _having to worry about these kinds of things.

"Yes." Ellen gave a small laugh before adding, "I can tell that's something you haven't given much thought to."

"No, I really haven't. I guess you're right." Leonard nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. "Well, I go back soon, so I guess that'll be the time to start getting used to it."

They sat quietly for a few seconds, drinking their coffees, before Ellen spoke again. "How did you deal with it all?"

"With what?"

"Being away from Penny. The break-up. When you found out what had happened."

Putting his coffee mug down on the table, Leonard sighed, before running a hand through his hair and giving her a small shrug. "I just threw myself into my work to distract myself." Expecting it to be a good enough answer, he kept his gaze on the coffee inside the mug. When she didn't say anything, he looked up to meet Ellen's expectant eyes. _Of course_, he reminded himself, _she's a therapist. She doesn't buy that crap. _"Umm... we had a lot of parties on that boat."

"So you drank?"

Hesitating, Leonard exhaled deeply, furrowing his brow. "Yeah. I guess I did. Which was weird, because it's so unlike me. The first time, I was lonely, so I did it for the social aspect and it just made the whole situation a lot more fun. It's stressful, you know, working to a deadline and having so much expected of you, and being away from the person you love for the first time... and it wasn't a problem, or anything, and Penny knew about it, but that was it." Leonard was amazed at how easily that had all come out. No wonder she had done such a good job with Penny; there was something about Ellen that invited you to talk without fear or being judged or questioned in a way that made you worry about your words.

"I see."

"Then the second trip... it was okay at first, the partying thing. I felt guilty that I hadn't seen her in so long and gone on this trip too. A few parties here and there, but mostly there was just a lot of work to do at the beginning." Leonard frowned intensely for a moment, his brow furrowing further at the painful memory of what happened next. "When she broke up with me, I did party, a lot. For a few days I just worked and then lay in bed, ignoring everything else. It was like being numb to the world. Then I just kept going to these parties and getting drunk to take that away. Never anything dangerous, I never wanted to go overboard with the drinking, but... still, I'm not proud of it. That's not how I deal with things but I just didn't know what else to do with myself anymore. Eventually my friend realized what was happening and found out about me and Penny breaking up and... huh, I guess I should really thank him properly because he got me to stop."

"Good. It's a good thing you had somebody there who cared enough and knew you well enough to get you to stop. That can be a horrible downfall."

"I know. He's the one who got me the contract that involved all of this travelling I got myself into, you know. Suppose I really do owe him, big time." Leonard raised his brows in thought. "Anyway, I did stop with all of that, and I really did throw myself into my work to distract myself."

"From what I know, everything for both you and Penny was bittersweet from there." Ellen said. "Your careers both began to advance and move you forward in your fields, but at the cost of your relationship and happiness within your personal lives."

"That sounds about right." Leonard produced a sad laugh. "I really would do anything to change that, you know."

"Leonard, I know that what happened is incredibly painful and something you will probably never stop regretting. But... you just need to focus on the fact that things worked out and the advantages in your life now." Ellen reminded him. "Just like I said to Penny, the past happened and the best thing you can do is be thankful for what you have now."

"True. And I am _very _thankful for what Penny and I have now." Leonard smiled.

"Yes, you should be." A grin grew on Ellen's face. "It's so great to be able to meet you and speak to you after all of this, to be face to face with what it is that makes Penny so happy. I can see it. I really can."

"Oh. Thank you." Leonard replied nervously. Finishing off his curiously, he looked at Ellen curiously. "Penny told me that your husband travels a lot. Is that why you became a therapist?"

"No, but it certainly made me a better therapist, once I learned to cope with him being away so often. It was actually a patient who pointed out to me that at least I get to see him for months at a time before he goes away again." Ellen shook her head in amusement. "Funny, how much you learn from the people you're helping. I was a therapist before I even met him. But it's made me a _better _therapist because I can empathize with people, beyond just sympathy, but with a professional wall of distance between _my _experiences, and what _they _are going through. Why?"

"I was just curious." Leonard shrugged. "My mother is a neuroscientist-psychiatrist and she made Penny cry the first time they met. You're a lot more easy to talk to and much, _much_, nicer."

"Well, no offense to your mother, but there are a lot of... interesting, shall we say, therapists out there. Different approaches work for different people. Penny is one who keeps things inside, but once she opens up she lets it all out, and needs to be talked _to_, rather than talked _at_."

"She is." Leonard agreed. "And my mother does tend to talk _at _people quite a lot. So, I can see where that went wrong. Though she does prefer Penny to me; she's a lot nicer to her and they spend more time together than my mother does with me when she visits."

"Oh, Leonard." Ellen chuckled. "I know that's horrible for you, considering it's your mother. But I think her getting along so well with Penny, despite their unfortunate meeting, shows that she sees how much Penny likes you, and how important that is for her that _you _are with the right person and happy with them too, and thus, her approval of your relationship."

"Seriously?" Leonard raised both his brows.

"Yeah."

"Huh. I really, _really _never thought of it in that way. But I like the sound of it."

"Life is full of little surprises like that."

"Sure is." Leonard chuckled. "Who would have thought, Beverly Hofstadter has some form of a heart. Emotionally, that is, not anatomically."

"Of course she does. I'm actually attending one of her conferences in a few weeks time, so that should be fun."

"They are not." Leonard stated flatly.

"Oh, on the contrary, for a therapist, they can be." Ellen grinned. "Plus, it means going to New York, which I'm certainly not going to turn down."

"Fair enough. I do like New York. I think Penny would like it too. Well, I say I think, I _know, _because of all the shopping. Maybe we'll go there once she's done with her commercial for a short weekend break."

"Sounds like a fun weekend." Ellen nodded. "Just a small tip - tell her to take an almost empty suitcase. Just because you're not going for long, doesn't mean she'll do less shopping."

"Thanks. We'll probably have to get an extra suitcase for her while we're there. This is Penny and shopping we're talking about."

"Very true." They laughed at this for a moment, before Ellen's phone lit up with a notification and she sighed. "I have to get going, I have a patient in a half hour so that's my reminder to be heading back."

"Okay, I should probably start heading back too. The dry cleaner will be done by now with the stuff from the other day." Leonard said, and they stood to leave, stopping to pay at the till before walking back out. "It was great to meet you, Ellen."

"You too. I know this was hard on Penny but it was hard on you too and I think you've both done so well with getting to where you are at now."

"Thank you." Leonard smiled shyly. "It was really good to talk to somebody about it. I never realized that it would be quite so refreshing to just share that. And thank you for everything you did with Penny."

"No worries, it's what I'm here for. Good luck with everything." Ellen patted his arm. "And if _you _ever need somebody to talk to, just like Penny, don't be afraid to call and make an appointment with me." She pulled out a card from her pocket, handing it over to him.

"Okay. Thank you." Leonard smiled appreciatively, nodding, pocketing the card. "Have a nice day."

"You too."

After saying goodbye, they parted their ways.

Walking back in the direction of the dry cleaners to pick up what he'd dropped off earlier, Leonard felt himself smiling. He had never thought of having to talk to anybody, and he hadn't really needed to. But it was definitely nice to have had the chance to do so, with somebody who knew the story already. He was amazed at how professional she had been even in a casual setting, not revealing things about her patient but still finding it in her to empathize and understand and give him advice. His heart went out to her, because despite the fact that she did get to see her husband more often and for longer periods of time, she still constantly went through saying goodbye to him and being away from him, which he knew was incredibly difficult. He was glad that Penny had found somebody like that in her life who could help her and was an equally strong figure.


	9. Things Worked Out

"So, that was my parking spot, 202," Penny explained, throwing her car keys into her handbag and leading Leonard along behind her by the hand, her eyes shining with excitement as she turned her head to look at him. "That over there is the little food trailer - they have the _best _bagels. My favorite one is the Philadelphia bagel."

"Sounds tasty." Leonard managed to say, before she continued again.

"Trust me, it is! We can get one later, I'll show you. Ooh, and that's our assistant director over there -" Penny waved at a woman two trailers away, who gave a quick wave back before turning back to the person she was talking to, "- she's really nice. That's my co-stars trailer, don't think she's here today. We don't need to be but I thought this'd be a good time to show you my trailer without everybody pouncing you and trying to get in the way of me showing you around."

"Okay." Leonard nodded, chuckling slightly at her enthusiasm.

"And here is my trailer!" Penny grinned, stopping abruptly and pulling a key out of her pocket. "With my name on it and everything!"

"Very cool." He smiled as she patted her name plate on her door.

"I know, right?" She nodded, before unlocking the trailer door and stepping inside, practically dragging him in with her. "Ta-dah! Welcome to Penny's totally awesome national commercial trailer." She announced dramatically. Allowing him to step properly into the trailer, Penny shut the door behind him, before stepping slightly further in so she could spread her arms and begin giving him a standing tour of the inside. "Here it is! Okay, so, here we have my little kitchenette with loads of coffee because... well, you know, I always need coffee. Umm and then is my little closet with my costumes in it and a little couch next to it. At the back there is a little bathroom with a shower and stuff, and next to that a bed which is really good for napping. Then coming back round is my dressing table, a little desk thing, and a tiny dining table which had a bowl of fruit on it but I finished it all... so I need to get some more fruit."

"It does look very cool," Leonard said, looking around at all the sections she had pointed out. "I like how you've decorated it with photographs and flowers."

Penny sighed, dropping her arms as she went back over to him. "I know it's not much. But... it's my trailer, and I've never had this kind of thing before, so it's really exciting for me. I mean, people come to _me _to do my hair and make-up and everything! And the door locks automatically when you close it, so I have to _let _them in - it's like... it just makes me feel like a proper actress."

"Of course it's a big deal!" Leonard assured her, bringing a hand up to cup her cheek. "You deserve all of this. You've worked really hard to get here. This is a big deal for you and I can see it in just how excited all of this makes you. Things worked out really well for you and I'm excited for you too. I think your trailer is amazing."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Grinning, Penny leaned up to kiss him gently on the lips. "You're the best."

Chuckling, he gave her a peck on the nose. "I know. I try."

"Do or do not, there is no try." Penny smirked up at him, biting her lip as she pressed her body against his. "So, fancy having sex with an actress in her awesome trailer?"

"As long as that actress is you." Leonard teased.

"Oh, trust me, it is. None of these other pretty bitches are getting anywhere _near _you. Now, come on, I'm wearing Victoria's Secret underwear you're going to enjoy." Penny tilted her head to the side briefly, looking at him mischievously, moving his hands under her sweater to hold her waist. "Or _am _I?"

* * *

"That'll be $217.98 in total."

"Here." Handing over his credit card, Leonard watched as she swiped it through before entering his pin number. Penny took the two pink striped Victoria's Secret paper shopping bags as Leonard put his card back into his wallet, before thanking the saleswoman and leaving.

"Thank you sweetie," Penny grinned up at him, giving him a quick peck on the lips as she swung the two bags by her side. "I love you."

"Of course you do, I just spent two hundred dollars on underwear." Leonard chuckled, taking her free hand in his and interlinking their fingers. "And spent an hour going around the store with you." He had discovered that while he _loved _seeing Penny in the underwear they looked at, shopping for it was very much a chore for him. After looking at what felt like hundreds of bras and even more panties, she had settled on nine pairs of panties from the '3 for $33' section and two bras. He vowed to next time just leave her to it with his card and get a coffee instead. Or two coffees, judging by the amount of time they'd just spent in there.

"Well, yes." Penny giggled. "But in all fairness, I really _didn't _think through the not wearing underwear thing... I was all excited this morning to show you my trailer and forgot to bring some for afterwards. Oh well. New stuff from Victoria's Secret is never a bad thing. Right?"

"I suppose not. But I much prefer seeing you in it than being with you while you buy it."

"Guess it takes away some of the magic." Penny frowned, before catching sight of the sign showing the mall restrooms. "Oh, here we are. Hmm... think I'll go with the purple panties. Suppose I should put a bra on since we're going to dinner... might as well match and wear the purple one too."

"I'm sure that'll look great."

"It will." Penny raised her brows. "I'll be right back."

Leonard went over to one of the benches to wait, sitting down and pulling out his phone. He responded to Sheldon's text asking him when they would be coming over to collect the rest of his things from his old room. After that he played a game of Solitaire, winning to his delight, before Penny emerged.

"There we go. I am no longer underwear-free." She announced to him, taking his hand and beginning the walk back to the car park.

"That's a shame." Leonard pouted playfully at her.

"You say that as a joke but it is. For my top half anyway. These jeans, on the other hand, were really not made for long-term underwear-free wear." Penny said thoughtfully. "Oh well. I got new underwear, I can't complain too much."

* * *

"Oh my God, _yes_! I found it!" Penny yelled from beneath the bed.

"Found what?" Leonard asked, turning his head away from the chest of drawers where he had been packing up the final bits and bobs that had been deemed insignificant when they'd taken the bulk of his items from his room to their new apartment. He raised a brow and let out a small laugh to find the feet of his girlfriend sticking out from beneath his bed.

"This!" Penny said, her voice strained as she wriggled her body out from under his bed. Sitting up, she brushed off a bit of dust from her top before looking at him and holding out two items of clothing with a proud expression on her face. "My cami from the first time that we were dating! Oh, and your purple t-shirt."

"My purple t-shirt!" Leonard grinned as he came forward to take it from her. "How did they get there?"

"They were stuck between the mattress bit of the bed and the wall. This is that sheer cami, remember?" She sighed when he frowned in thought. "Ugh, it was like... _years _ago, the first time we were dating, remember, and I took off my robe and I was wearing it... and you had that purple t-shirt on, then the next morning Sheldon refused to let me watch my television show because the noise decibels were 'beyond unacceptable' - remember? And you said you had a better punishment for me than not letting me watch my show..."

"Oh yeah," Leonard looked down at the t-shirt, smiling fondly. "That was a good night. I was trying to work out after that how my t-shirt count had gone down from thirty-five to thirty-four. I thought I was going mad and had been miscounting all along. Turns out I wasn't! Can't believe I spent all those years doubting my math skills."

"Seriously, _this _cami and you're thinking about _that _t-shirt?" Penny scoffed. "You wait, I'll wash it and put it on and that t-shirt is going to be the last thing on your mind."

"I look forward to it." Leonard nodded with a raised brow, tossing his t-shirt into the small suitcase they had brought with them. "I'm going to assume that's why you were under my bed for so long, trying to find those."

"Yeah. Well, I remembered my cami had gotten lost when Amy said she would be moving into your room and I thought that I had really better find it. Your t-shirt being there too was just a co-incidence." Penny shrugged. "Now c'mon, I don't wanna be here for _too _long or Sheldon's gonna get mad at us."

It took them another half hour to completely ensure that the room was free of all stray objects and items of clothing. There was a surprising amount of things that had been forgotten about, and after two final checks of the room, they deemed it satisfactory to leave behind. Leonard took the suitcase down the hallway and over to the front door, passing by Sheldon who was watching television.

Sheldon, without turning his head away from the screen, asked "are you finished?"

"Yes." Penny nodded.

"Is it left to a satisfactory standard for me to give the room a deep cleaning tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

"Good." Sheldon muted the television, turning his head to look at the couple. "Will you be staying for a final cup of tea?"

"I'm sorry sweetie, but we really should be getting back." Penny said apologetically.

"Oh. Alright then."

Leonard and Penny looked at Sheldon and then at each other sympathetically. They knew that despite him choosing not to say so, and the fact that Amy would be moving in in his place, he would miss living with Leonard. After so long sharing the apartment, and such a big change looming over him, this process was more difficult for him than he was letting on. Smiling, Leonard shrugged. "I suppose we can stay for one cup of tea."

"Goody!" Sheldon stood up quickly, heading over to the kitchen, not able to hide his delight that they wouldn't be leaving quite so soon. "Green tea for you both as usual, I'm assuming?"

"That would be perfect."

Leonard and Penny sat in Leonard's old armchair (they had decided to leave it in favor of buying a new, bigger one to match the couch in their own apartment), and Sheldon resumed his spot once he had brought over the mugs of tea. The conversation remained light and casual as they watched whatever program it was that Sheldon had been watching, neither wanting to ask in order to avoid the long-winded answer they'd learned to expect from him. Eventually, Sheldon placed his empty mug down and turned to the pair.

"You know, this reminds me of the first time we were here together, the day Penny moved in across the hall."

"Really? How?" Penny raised a brow. "I'm pretty certain I didn't sit in this armchair with Leonard that day."

"No, you just had a shower with me still in the bathroom." Leonard chuckled, gently squeezing her sides.

Blushing, Penny bit her lip. "Just let Sheldon carry on with what he was saying."

"My point was, that was the first time and one of the few times that it has just been the three of us together." Sheldon said.

"Aww, so it was." Penny grinned. "I'm glad you guys came over. Let me tell you, moving and trying to get all your stuff sorted and still get to work and avoiding Kurt but still kinda wanting to see him, and forgetting to go to the grocery shop on time, and forgetting what groceries you actually _need _because you don't have that much money... it was stressful. So... I am, I'm really glad you guys came over and said hi. Numerous times."

"Yes, well, Leonard was quite insistent that we say hello."

Leonard shrugged at them. "Worked out well for me, didn't it?"

"Worked out well for me too. Despite her horrendous driving skills, it came in useful to have Penny available to drive me around when you would and could not." Sheldon nodded. "Though I really could have done without all the crying when you were broken up, and all the _noise _when you were together. Boy, I will not miss that."

"I'm sure you'll be making noise of your own nowadays." Penny grinned. "Now that you two kids are growing up."

"It's Amy who is the noise-maker." Sheldon informed them with a slight frown. "I'm going to assume that's a good thing."

"Oh, did not need to know that!" Penny pulled a face, frowning, leaning back away from Sheldon and into Leonard.

"Gross." Leonard muttered.

"You say that, but I had to put up with you two for innumerous years. And sometimes even the noise cancelling headphones didn't work." Sheldon folded his arms. "While you get away with only that verbalized information, I had to live with a verbalized commentary more times than I care to acknowledge."

"Yeah..." Penny ran her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip, nodding down at her knees. "My bad."

"It is the first thing I will have zapped from my memory once that becomes a classified medical procedure."

In retrospect, after giving it some thought, she really did feel sorry for Sheldon. Neither she nor Leonard were particularly quiet people, so Sheldon having to put up with them _together _in the room just next door, separated only by a thin wall, must have been quite the concert. She was the first one to pipe up that Leonard wasn't particularly quiet. And she knew she sure as hell wasn't quiet. But she'd never thought about the noise volume of them _together. _The idea of it brought a smirk across her face.

Meanwhile, Leonard simply grinned. If he was loud and Penny was _that _loud, clearly the both of them were doing something right. And he was definitely very proud of that. "We're sorry. We'll pay for that medical procedure should it come into existence."

"Yes, well, neither of you look particularly sorry." Sheldon shook his head disapprovingly. "This really wasn't the point of my original topic. I would much rather move along from it."

Blinking, Penny looked back up and cleared her throat. "Sorry. Yeah. You were saying something about the first day I moved here."

"I was, correct." Sheldon nodded. "As I said, that is one of the few times it's been just the three of us together. You will recall that Koothrappali and Wolowitz joined us shortly afterwards - a delightful, I'm sure, surprise for the moment you came out to seek help from Leonard with the shower - and from then on it was five of us. You made us from a small cluster of four to a raving co-ed group of five. And, in time, that became a wild mass of seven when Amy and Bernadette were added to the group."

"Technically Amy joining the group was Howard and Raj's work." Leonard pointed out.

"Yes, however, I had to give Penny some credit with Amy, they are 'besties' after all."

"Aww." Penny grinned. "Don't you love our... wild mass of seven?"

"The strange thing is, I do. Despite my initial discomfort with you being added to the group, thanks to Leonard's persistence, I like how things turned out. And it was nice for it to be the three of us again, because now that neither of you live in this building, it won't be."

"That's so sweet." Penny smiled.

"Who knew such lovely things could be said by Sheldon Cooper." Leonard grinned proudly. "Now it'll just be you and Amy here."

"And if Raj and Yvette get serious and move in together... we'll all be living in couples!" Penny gasped, hitting the side of the armchair excitedly. "How weird is that? How we all started as eight singles and over time, two by two, we became four couples? What are the odds of _that _happening?!"

"We could calculate the odds-" Sheldon began.

"Not necessary." Leonard cut him off.

"I like how things worked out." Penny smiled, looking around the apartment. "I really do."

"Me too." Sheldon agreed, whilst Leonard nodded a quiet "same."

They sat quietly for a moment in reflective thought, before Penny sighed contentedly, shifting beside Leonard and then standing up. "We really should be going now."

"Yeah." Leonard agreed, also standing.

"It is getting late." Sheldon confirmed, getting up too from his spot.

"Thank you for the tea." Penny said, as Leonard helped her into her jacket, which she'd draped over his old desk chair, before picking up her handbag.

"You're welcome."

Digging his hand into his pocket, Leonard pulled out his apartment key for 4A. "Here. This is Amy's now."

Looking at the object curiously for a moment, Sheldon gave a small smile before accepting the key. "Thank you, Leonard."


	10. One Hell of a Nerdy Conversation

A smile forming on his sleepy face, Leonard picked up the pink lined paper - that had been torn neatly from a notebook he instantly knew was Penny's - and placed beside the welcomingly turned on coffee maker.

_Have a great first day back at work baby! Left you a little present in the cupboard above the sink & some lunch in the fridge :) Love you! xxx_

Chuckling fondly at her scribbled note, he put it back down and headed over to the cupboard over the sink and opened it. There he found a new Star Wars themed thermos flask, a pair of Captain Kirk mugs (one with 'Kirk for President' and one with 'Captain Kirk: Commanding Officer' on them), and a box with his name on it in which he found a framed photograph of the pair of them from their house warming party. There was also a small post it, which read '_One mug for work, the other for your coffee this a.m. :) The flask for your journey & photo for your desk x' _

Sometimes he forgot just how adorable Penny could be. She'd had to leave an hour before his alarm went off that morning, and had insisted he just go back to sleep since it was his first day, which he did. But he hadn't expected this small treat from her. He poured himself some coffee into the 'Kirk for President' mug before heading over to the fridge, where he found a plastic container of pasta, and another with salad. Wondering when she'd found the time to make this, he grinned when he opened the lid slightly and saw that it was fusilli pasta with green pesto - simple, but his favorite.

He could remember being excited for Penny's first day with her commercial, but he hadn't done anything like this. Though, as he sipped at his coffee at the counter, he remembered that he _had _taken her out for dinner the night before and then had a romantic meal cooked for them upon her return home that evening. "Romance works in different ways," he said to himself with a wide grin. He'd been looking forward to starting work again, aside from the stress it would inevitably bring, but this had made his morning and outlook on the day a thousand times better.

* * *

With the busy day of Penny's long day on set for the commercial, and Leonard's first day back at work, by the time they had finished dinner and catching each other up, they agreed that it was a good idea to get washed up and into bed and continue from there. With the television on and their laptops in bed with them, the evening was calming and relaxed, allowing them to step back from the excitement and action of the day.

"Ooh," Penny squinted at her screen as she double clicked on an email attachment. "They've sent me my timetable for college."

"That's exciting," Leonard leaned over to get a better look at her screen.

"Uh-huh," Penny nodded. "Oh, those modules look really interesting. And no Monday mornings! Yay!"

"Well that's certainly good." Leonard chuckled. "Oh, you don't even have any morning sessions!" He observed, as she slowly scrolled through the weekly timetable.

"Score!" Penny held out a hand to high-five him. "That's the perks of having done bits and bobs of it before. I just have to do the ones I didn't do already. Oh, wait, though I have practical sessions on alternate mornings - that's okay I suppose, it's not too early. Ah, this is so good. And I still have two full days off so I can have a little acting job in between if it fits in."

"That's worked out well for you then." Leonard kissed her forehead before sitting properly again. "As long as you don't over-work yourself."

"It's you who'll be over-working himself, Mr. I-have-fifty-emails-from-work-already-after-my-first-day-back." Penny pointed out.

"It's just welcome back emails." Leonard shrugged.

"Oh, look at you, quite the popular guy now aren't you?" Penny teased, grinning with her tongue between their teeth.

"Mainly, it's just departmental emails and administration things I need to sort out. But, yeah, some of them are nice little emails welcoming me back. I guess I am kinda popular." Leonard tilted his head up proudly.

"Just as long as they're not forgetting that you're _mine_, I'm cool with you being the popular guy at work." Penny winked.

"This is Caltech, not high school, being the popular guy doesn't mean anything."

"Uh, Caltech is a university, which is a kind of school, so... yeah it does. And these days you're the hot stud everyone's after." She pouted at him playfully, ignoring the part of her that was more than slightly jealous of all these people wanting to - and _getting _to - spend time with him. "Do I need to give you a hickey to make it clear that you're mine?"

"You can if you want, I have _no _problem with that. But I'm an Experimental Physicist, so I can assure you I am as far from a 'hot stud' as could possibly be." Leonard chuckled.

"That is true." Penny nodded thoughtfully. "Eh, I'm gonna give you that hickey anyway. I have an Example A and Example B of why I don't trust or like female scientists, so, you know, that can be a nice friendly reminder that you're taken. But not right now because I need to print this timetable and order my books."

"Here, pass me your laptop and I'll set it up with the wireless printer in my office." Leonard put his laptop on the bedside table, and she handed over her own to him.

"Thanks." Penny smirked. "Quicker than the time I asked you to set up my printer but you got distracted by Alicia moving in upstairs."

"Aw, come on, that's not fair, it was a long time ago and... nothing was happening between us anyway back then!"

"Oh, was my _glaring jealously _not obvious enough? The fact that I bought a brand new dress, did my hair and make-up and shaved my legs _just _to come upstairs and be all fake-nice to her so you'd remember I exist, that didn't make it clear to you?"

Raising his brows, Leonard turned to look at her. He could tell from her tone and expression that she wasn't quite joking, and as much as it confused him, he knew it wasn't something he could ignore. "Penny, you're over-reacting."

"I know! Okay? I know I'm over-reacting." Penny sighed, leaning her head back as she drew her knees up, placing her feet flat on the bed. Her hands dropped down either side of her, fiddling with the comforter. "Look, I know, this is really stupid, because I don't have a real reason to be jealous of those people at work, even the women, but I just am. And I don't know where that thing about Alicia came from. It's just... there are huge changes for me, Leonard, and I've been so content with spending all my time with you and even when I went to work, knowing it was still just the two of us... now that you're starting work again and I'll be starting college and finishing up the commercial, I'm just... it's a lot of change to be dealing with and thinking about when I start to _really_ think about it."

"Do you want to... do you want to talk about it?" Leonard asked tentatively.

"I don't know. I just feel stupid now because it's so irrational, you know? It just comes from nowhere. And it's over stupid things that I already know mean nothing. I mean, those things were all a _long _time ago. It's dumb. And you... _you're _going to work, and I know you always worry about me, and that this has been really hard on you too, and people will be asking questions, and... and then there's me who just..." Penny sighed in frustration. "I don't know."

"Is there anything I can say to make it better? Actually, no," Leonard shook his head, before putting her laptop to the side and turning to her. "Even if these things are irrational and out of nowhere, it's good to get them out of your system. Sometimes you just remember these feelings and they need to go. So I don't care if those things are what you're worried about, as long as I know so that you're not keeping it in. Alicia was a long time ago and it was only because I spent so long going after you that a fresh attempt with someone else seemed like a good distraction at the time. And all the people at work... I _really _couldn't care less who welcomes me back and how many of them do. Unless it's Stephen Hawking. Or, like... Einstein in a time machine. I've had enough bad experiences with the female scientists as it is, and that's not even much, but it's still enough, so, you really don't have to worry about that. Like, ever. So, you don't need to ever worry about these things. But if you do, that's allowed, we all have these irrational, out of the blue moments where we just... have to let it go."

"I know." Penny dropped her head to his shoulder. "Thank you." For a moment they were simply quiet, and he brought his hand up around her to rub her arm gently. Biting the corner of her lip, Penny's brow furrowed and she placed a hand on his knee. "I figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"Why all of that just sort of... came back up."

"Okay, that's good."

"Can I tell you?"

"Of course," he smiled, gently squeezing her arm and rubbing small circles where he knew relaxed her just below her shoulder.

"When we were in the taxi going to my apartment in London that day, for a second I got scared that if we _did _eventually get back together, once you knew my story you would... you would one day give up on trying to deal with everything that comes as a consequence of it. But I told myself not to overthink, because it was just too much in one tiny moment of time. Acknowledging these huge changes happening _now _made me overthink."

"Penny," Leonard turned fully to face her, taking her face between his hands softly, looking her straight in the eye. "I am never, _ever _going to give up on you."

"I'm a lot to handle."

"I know." Leonard chuckled. "I've known that for nearly ten years."

"But even more so now." Penny looked up at him sadly. "It's a lot for even _me _to deal with, sometimes."

"That's what I'm here for. Just like when you have my inhaler to hand when I need it most." He stroked his thumb against her cheek when he saw the slight of a smile on the corner of her lips. "I love you, Penny, too much to ever give up on you."

"Even when I'm being unreasonable?"

"That's just part of the process of recovering. The smaller problems and fears emerge when changes start happening, until you've fought them all."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Absolutely not. You know what, here, I'll prove how it works. I still get scared that you'll be swept off your feet by some handsome, rich, muscular, tall actor while you're doing your commercial or in some acting job after that."

"Oh, come on, that's stupid, you know that won't happen." Penny raised a brow at him, putting her hands over his on her face.

"I know. But I can't help thinking it. Just like you did now. Old insecurities come back sometimes even when you _know _they're unreasonable." Leonard leaned forward to kiss her lips.

"Alright. Makes sense." Penny felt herself finally smile as his lips touched hers just following his words. "Thank you. And just so you know, I'm not ever giving up on you either. Even if you think I would leave you for some dumb actor."

"Well, that's always good to hear."

Grinning, she returned his kiss, before reaching over him to get her laptop. "I'm sorry for turning this relaxing night into a... well, into what just happened. I do feel better now. I think it was just kind of looming over me a little bit. But either way, it doesn't get you out of setting up my printer this time!"

Leonard chuckled. "I do owe you a printer set up."

"Yup." Penny nodded. "And, look, I'm glad you're popular at work and that everybody wants to email you and talk to you. You worked with Hawking, of course they do. I'm okay with it. It was a lot to think about in that moment. So don't be worrying about any of this now, okay? I know what you're like."

"I can't _help _worrying-"

"No, ugh, Leonard," Penny laughed a little, swatting his arm. "Don't, okay, I'm fine. Promise." She smiled sweetly at him, before shuffling down in the bed. "Just set up my printer, print the thingy, and then we can go to sleep."

"Aw, is someone tired?"

"Very." Penny nodded, closing her eyes as her head slid onto the pillow. "But I can't sleep until you're done so you can spoon me. So hurry up."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

"Hey baby," Penny grinned as she answered the phone through a mouthful of salad, knowing it would be Leonard from the caller ID.

"Someone sounds cheery." Leonard chuckled.

"I am! After I have my lunch, all I have to do it sit there while they put the hair extensions in to style them and make sure the color is right and then I'm done for the day."

"Ah, the tough life of an actress."

"Right? Though the next three days will be all filming so that'll be busy."

"How come it's taking three days?" Leonard asked, knowing that some of her older commercials had taken much less longer.

"Well, we're not doing full days. And it's in three sections, which are done in three different ways. So it's easier to split it up. I don't know, I didn't make the schedule, but it sure as hell works for me."

"I see. That's good, then."

"Yup. Wish I could keep the extensions in to show you, though. Oh well! I'll send you a photo later." Penny placed her fork down, before sitting back in her chair and putting her feet up on the edge of the table. "So, did you call to check up on me after yesterday?"

"Umm... kind of." Leonard admitted quietly.

"It's okay. I thought you would." Penny smiled into her phone, closing her eyes. "I'm fine, Leonard. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For asking me. I think it's cute that you check up on me when you know I've been upset recently. It's nice knowing you care, that's all."

"Oh, okay." Leonard breathed a sigh of relief. He'd been worried that she might think it too overbearing of him, but she sounded genuinely happy that he had called her.

"Plus, it means I get a phone call from my boyfriend over lunch, which is always fun. How's work?"

"It's alright. Nothing much happening yet, just paperwork for things I'm going to start working on and playing around with some of the new equipment." Leonard shrugged, signing off a form as he spoke. "Ooh, actually, there's this one experiment I think you'd find pretty cool. I'll let you know when I'm doing it so you can come by and see it."

Biting her lip, Penny giggled. "Oh, I have to wait for you to be doing a cool experiment to swing by the lab? I can't just drop by unexpectedly?"

"No, no, you can definitely do that." Leonard grinned.

"Good, very good. Because I had plans for the days we're just filming in the morning and finish just after lunch. Didn't wanna cancel those."

"Oh, you had plans, did you?"

"Yup." Penny smirked to herself. "See, when you're having lunch alone in your trailer, you think of these things. And it's only logical I use this weeks spare time since I start my college timetable next week."

"Well, we don't want to go against logic now, do we?"

"We really don't." Penny agreed, nodding slowly, gazing at the table as she chewed on her lip. She really liked the certainty in Leonard's voice that had replaced the questioning tone that would usually accompany her pre-initiating these things in places other than the privacy of their home. She liked it a _lot_. Clearing her throat, she exhaled deeply as she ran a hand through her hair. "I should get going, they'll be here to do my hair soon."

"Alright. I'm going to try get all this paperwork done before I leave for the day."

"That sounds fun. I'm gonna pick up my books for college on my way back and then I'll get us something to make for dinner. Sound good?"

"Yeah, let me know when you're done. Oh, by the way, Sheldon invited us for dinner tomorrow. You know, with everyone else. It was a bit weird being invited to my old apartment."

"Sounds good to me. Amy's been keeping quiet about life living with Sheldon Cooper!"

"Can you blame her? We were the same."

"That's true. Guess we'll find out soon enough. Okay, I'll let you get back to work then. Love you sweetie."

"I love you too."

* * *

Sharing the old armchair in 4A with Leonard, Penny had turned to her left to converse with the girls, who had opted to sit on chairs together so that the guys could sit on the couch, in order for conversations not to be thrown around when topics became more focused.

"Wait, so, even though you've slept together - _twice _- you're still not sharing a room or even a bed in the apartment you _share _as boyfriend and girlfriend?" Bernadette clarified, confusion etched on her face. "How does that even work? You shared a bed at Penny's!"

"Yes, because there was no other option. We are okay with that." Amy nodded. "However, sharing a bed on a permanent basis is just something that we are not ready for. It's nice to have the comfort of it being an occasional thing because it feels special."

"I guess it's kind of like at the start of a relationship, when you spend a few nights together but not that many, and it makes the nights you _do _spend together more fun." Yvette said with a small shrug.

"True. But it's weird because you _live _together." Penny emphasized the last part by waving a hand to point between Sheldon and Amy. "And, as cute as that is, when you actually get to _always _spend the night with them is a thousand times better."

"And that's coming from the girl who was terrified of the idea of living with Leonard for a _long _time." Bernadette said with raised brows.

"We're not _scared _of sharing a bed," Amy explained, "we simply don't want to rush into it being a permanent feature of our relationship. We still need our boundaries."

"Okay, I get the boundaries thing... but still. Though, suppose, you guys have been taking the slowest pace ever with your relationship, this really shouldn't surprise us." Penny shrugged.

"Exactly. Besides, considering that you and Bernadette already live with _your _partners, it's Yvette who will probably understand this situation the most."

"Why me?"

"Because you don't live with Raj, so you get what it's like to still have the safety and comfort of your own space, but having the option to share should the need arise."

"I'd say it's more _desire _than need." Bernadette giggled.

As the girls moved on to talk about one of Yvette's latest pet she had treated and the owner who continually hit on her, Penny zoned out for a moment as she felt Leonard's hand on the skin of her waist. She turned around to see if he was doing it to get her attention, but he was completely engrossed in the conversation he was having with the guys to the point he didn't even respond when she accidentally pushed her elbow into his arm as she turned. Smiling, she turned back to the girls, listening to their bitching about this evidently horny pet owner who, as it turned out, was married, though her mind stayed on Leonard. She loved how he would absentmindedly do these familiar things that comforted and relaxed her, even when he didn't need to or she didn't need it. Her mind had been tuning into these things recently, and she wondered if he'd always done this without her noticing or if it was just because their relationship had gotten so much stronger recently that these gestures of tenderness just became a natural thing. It was like her handholding; she could remember years ago him asking if she was okay because she kept trying to hold his arms or hands when walking, and she hadn't even realized it; she'd just been doing it out of comfort. Perhaps this was just one of those things. She definitely liked it.

"Penny?"

"Huh?"

"We were just saying, we should do a proper girls night. We haven't done one with both you and Yvette before." Bernadette told her.

"Oh, sorry, I just zoned out for a little bit, my bad!" Penny giggled. "That definitely sounds like a good idea. I could _so _do with a girls night, it's been _way _too long!"

"Yay!" Amy grinned.

"We could do it at my place," Penny offered, "and I'll get Leonard to come stay here. That'll be nice for Sheldon too."

"Yes, I agree. He may have to sleep on the couch, though, I'm not comfortable with Leonard sleeping in my bed, even if he is your boyfriend, bestie."

"No, no, that's fine," Penny laughed. "I'm sure he'll be alright on the couch here, it's perfectly comfortable. Though you could always change the sheets and get him to strip them afterwards."

"Hmm. That's not a bad idea, I will consider it. I don't want him to be uncomfortable. So, when is everybody free?"

"The weekend might work best?" Yvette suggested.

"Definitely." Bernadette agreed. "Since we won't have to go to work."

"Alright, that works for me." Penny nodded, mentally checking she had no plans set for the weekend.

"Good. You wanna tell the guys?" Amy offered. "Since you're sitting right next to them."

"If I can get their minds away from whatever it is they're discussing that's so fascinating." Penny rolled her eyes, before turning round again. "Leonard, sweetie?" Realizing this was probably ineffective what with the animated debate going on between the guys, she decided to go for the simplest way of distracting them and shifted quickly into Leonard's lap and kissed him. Giggling at his confused expression as she pulled away, she moved off him to sit beside him again. "Sorry about that but you guys were _really _into that conversation and I had to stop it."

"Why would you _do _such a thing?" Sheldon looked dumbfounded. "We were just getting to the climax of the debate! An _incredibly _important one! Now we won't know-"

"Ba-ba-ba-ba!" Leonard waved his hand at Sheldon. "Let's not ruin this by reminding the girls how nerdy we actually are when we're all together."

"Really you don't think we know just how nerdy you guys are?" Penny said in disbelief.

"No, he's right, you'd rather not know." Raj agreed, nodding to Leonard.

"Agreed." Howard frowned. "But it was a damn good debate, Penny."

"Okay, sure, anyway." Penny sighed, raising her brows at the girls who looked just as amused as she was. "We're having a girls night this weekend so Leonard's gonna have to stay here with you Sheldon."

"Oh goody!" Sheldon exclaimed, his face lighting up. "We can continue this debate and use the whiteboards and video games and comic books to back up our points and map it all out!"

"Must have been one _hell _of a nerdy conversation." Amy muttered.


	11. Safe Journey Home

_**Chapter 11: **Safe Journey Home_

"Oops."

Penny frowned as she looked to her side to see that the _ding _and rather unappealing crunch was in fact her wing mirror colliding with the wing mirror of the car next to her. Fortunately for her, _her _mirror was still in tact, and she wound down the window to push it back out from where it had folded inwards. Unfortunately for the other car, the mirror had cracked rather that it being folded inwards upon impact like hers.

"Damn... this was such a good parking spot too. Whoops. Oh well!"

Sighing, Penny reversed back out, deciding she'd blame Leonard for that. He was the one who'd had to rush off to a meeting after their - admittedly, much longer than expected - endeavors in his lab. Which meant they'd had no time to just cuddle and calm down afterwards. So, going by her own logic, her inattentive state was _really _his fault. He could have just ignored the phone call asking him, last minute, to join an important meeting about a new grant proposal they'd decided they wanted him in on. And despite her telling him to go because it was important and might be really interesting, she still sort of wished he hadn't.

"Oh, who cares, it's not my mirror that broke." Penny decided, scoffing at her own mind process before pouting her lips together. _She _still felt great, even if the car owner of the broken-mirror car might not. Grinning, she found herself a new parking spot near the external exit that led to the street beside the mall instead, making sure that this time she did _not _damage any car parts.

Getting out, she headed straight for the store she was aiming for: the stationery and home office store. Leonard's office and lab lacked the excessive amounts of decoration and stationery that it used to, with only the whiteboard on the wall and a notebook he'd brought with him that he carried around with him. She had enjoyed how busy it used to be before, and even though it was years of use that his old office and lab had gone through to become such a full environment, she wanted to get him started on it now. That, and she was ninety-nine percent certain his current notebook was now unusable, which meant he would need a new one anyway.

It was odd, she thought, how much she was excited by the idea of buying things for his office. Usually, any shopping that wasn't for clothes or shoes left her insanely bored and in need of very strong coffee. But now, knowing that she'd be contributing to making Leonard's workplace more welcoming and mentally stimulating for him, hitting the stationery store seemed almost as exciting as hitting the Chanel make-up counter with Leonard on her birthday. _Almost. _Maybe she'd treat herself to a new lipstick as a reward for shopping for Leonard. And technically the lipstick _would _be for Leonard, because he had mentioned in London when she tried on the color that he liked it on her - she just hadn't bought it. Yet.

It was with that slightly questionable logic that Penny entered the stationery store and began walking through each and every aisle, slowly filling up the trolley she'd retrieved upon entering.

* * *

"What the hell?" Leonard's eyes grew wide as Penny walked in, a trolley used to transport heavy lab equipment laden with shopping bags being pulled along behind her.

"Hey sweetie," Penny said, tugging the trolley into his lab before dumping her handbag on the currently empty desk. "How was the meeting?"

"It was alright, I said I'd help out with some of the experiments if they get it but I have enough on my plate already so I told them I wouldn't be part of putting the proposal forward." Leonard shrugged. "It's quite a big one so it would take up too much time. Umm, what's all that stuff?"

"Oh, I went shopping!" Penny replied simply, waving a hand in dismissal. "Just picked up a few things for your lab and your office."

"A _few _things?"

"Yeah, some of those little whiteboards you used to have, corkboards, notebooks, folders... pens and pencils and markers and those little Math sets. That kinda stuff. Then I went to some other stores and got you a plant, a little kettle and some coffee and sugar." Penny explained as though she was simply telling him she bought a new bar of soap.

"Uh... that warrants the term 'a few things'? That's more like an entire office."

"It looked all empty earlier! I had to do something about it. Oh, and I got that lipstick in the shade you liked in London. So you can enjoy me wearing that tomorrow." Penny grinned perkily at him.

"Umm, okay, but... why?"

"Because your office and lab look all empty, so I thought I'd get you started with stuff to make it more like it was before. After all that time we spent shopping for the apartment, I think this was just _waiting _to happen."

"I see." Leonard chuckled slightly.

"Did you not want me to?" Penny frowned.

"No, it's just a bit... random?"

"You mean like, impulsive. That's what you mean." Penny sighed, leaning back against the work surface on which he'd begun to set up an experiment. She knew in seemed out-of-the blue, and in retrospect, slightly brash and obsessive, as though she felt the need to make her mark in his office - especially after what had happened a few nights ago. But her idea had been simply to make Leonard's lab and office his own, not the empty place it currently was, and she had always enjoyed shopping - most recently, domestic shopping. "I just realized how empty it was, compared to before. It has nothing to do with anything, other than this new obsession with shopping for homely, and apparently office-y, things."

"That's okay. I just didn't expect it, that's all." Leonard assured her, rubbing her arms gently with his hands.

"Maybe it's the whole fresh perspective thing." Penny said, tilting her head to the side slightly in thought. "All this stuff just seems so exciting still." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before stepping back. "Mm. You get back to work. I'm gonna set about making this place a bit more exciting before moving on to your office."

* * *

"God, I am _exhausted_." Penny mumbled to herself, flopping down on the couch and closing her eyes, placing her hands on her forehead.

"Oh, hey, honey," Leonard said, popping up from behind the kitchen counter and effectively scaring Penny.

"Jesus Christ!" Penny sat bolt upright, moving her hands over her chest. "God, Leonard, you scared me there."

"Sorry, I dropped an egg and was cleaning it up. That stuff is real reluctant to be cleaned up." Leonard threw a wad of kitchen paper into the trash can before coming through to join Penny on the couch, giving her a quick kiss and pulling her into his arms. "How was your last day?"

"Exhausting." Penny yawned, settling her head onto his chest and her arms around his stomach. "Loads of fun though. But I want to sleep for a million years now. I forget how much these things can take it out of you. Some of them are going out to celebrate but I just wanna lie down forever."

"Well, you don't have to get up until the evening tomorrow, so you can be Sleeping Beauty and rest up." Leonard smiled, rubbing her arm gently. "But hey, you did it! You filmed for a national commercial! Yay!"

"Mmm." Penny giggled. "That's exciting. They said they will let us know when it comes out and what channel and time it'll be on first. I'm gonna be on that TV screen."

"That lucky TV screen." Leonard chuckled, which made Penny giggle. "I'm gonna make some French Toast and then run you a bubble bath, have a little fruit platter and tea for you while you're in there, and then I think it's bed time for you."

"Okay baby. You're the boss." Penny nodded, not moving to let him get back up to go to the kitchen, despite wanting him to get started on the relaxing treat he'd just described for her.

"I've put _Sex and the City _in the DVD player." Leonard grinned, to which she instantly sat up. "Am I awesome or what?"

"You are pretty damn awesome, Hofstadter." Penny nodded approvingly as he got up. "Your tushy is also pretty damn awesome," she winked as he walked away. "It better be joining me in that bubble bath later!"

* * *

"Girls Night!"

Clinking their champagne flutes, the girls cheered between the four of them.

"So-o," Penny placed her flute down on the coffee table, "Ames, how's living with Sheldon going?"

"Wonderful. We already had an arranged Living Arrangement Agreement, so things are going pretty smoothly." Amy confirmed. "Though I did have to put up a case for longer shower time. He forgets that girls take longer."

"That's good, then! Glad things are working out."

"Is it all... scheduled and organized?" Bernadette asked, trying to think of the correct word to use. "Do you have to go by his timing or does he give you a bit of freedom because you're his girlfriend?"

"We mostly go by his schedule, which is fine by me. It was a pretty tedious conversation though when I told him on Mondays and Tuesdays I start work later so wouldn't be able to drive him to work." Amy rolled her eyes. "But other than that, it's great. It works for me."

"Ah, yeah, he rang Leonard to ask him if he'd take him to work on those days." Penny nodded, amused.

"I'll bet he was happy to get that phone call." Bernadette laughed.

"Yeah, so, _so _happy."

"One morning, I was staying at Raj's, and I woke up to this knocking on the door and it was _Sheldon _asking for a lift because Howard was sick and couldn't drive him. It was 6am." Yvette groaned. "That was a real shock to the system."

"Mm, never gets any more fun having to deal with that." Penny nodded at Yvette sympathetically.

"He's really looking forward to having Leonard stay over." Amy said, moving the conversation along. Unfortunately, she didn't really have much to say about living with Sheldon - it was less exciting to explain than it was to be actually living with him. She sort of liked that, keeping it between them, but wished she had more to say about it. "It'll be the first time in two years that he'll have Leonard there again."

"Aw." Penny gave a small smile in Amy's direction. "Well, you know, things change, stuff happens. If he'd come back after that first trip, eventually I'd have asked him to move in with me anyway. We spent most of our time together, it would've made sense for it to be the next move."

"How does it feel knowing that this'll be your first night in this apartment without Leonard?" Yvette asked.

"I dunno. Weird, I guess. I hadn't really thought about it. I'll miss him. It's always just the two of us, so it'll be... different." Penny explained thoughtfully, twirling her hair around her finger. "It's actually the first time since I saw him in London that we won't be together. Apart from a few nights when there was a bit of a... we've literally not been apart since then. So, yeah, I dunno, it'll just be a bit weird I guess."

"You want one of us to share the bed with you so you can pretend it's him there with you?" Amy offered, "I'm your bestie, I'll fill in if you like."

"Umm, no, that's okay," Penny giggled slightly - Amy's quirkiness was always endearing, rather than awkward like it had been when they'd first met.

"Yeah, you don't want her pretending you're Leonard," Bernadette smirked, "who knows what situation you'll wake up in."

"Hey!" Penny gasped, mocking offence.

"I would say I'm kidding but I'm not really." Bernadette shrugged.

"Well, it'd be a bit late but it could count as your reciprocation to my attempt at lesbian experimentation at our first slumber party." Amy stated.

"_What_?" Yvette exclaimed.

"Yeah... and it's _exactly_ how it sounds." Penny frowned as she remembered the incident in question.

"Amy was looking up what people do at slumber parties and apparently, experimentation with lesbianism was on there, so... she went for it." Bernadette bit back a laugh. "_Really _went for it, apparently."

"Sadly, I wasn't very successful. Penny wasn't a willing participant." Amy sighed. "Oh well."

"Well, that's... that sounds like a fun first slumber party." Yvette laughed. "We're not doing that tonight, though, right?"

"Oh, no, God no." Penny shook her head profusely. "That was the one and only time that kind of thing ever happened."

"Though I'm sure Howard likes to imagine it happens at all slumber parties." Amy raised a brow at Bernadette.

"No, I ruined that dream for him a _long _time ago."

* * *

"I know, I miss you too. It's weird. It's just for one night though. Yeah, of course. I'll see you tomorrow, just call me when the girls are planning to go and we'll pack up and start heading back, okay? Yeah. Okay, honey, sleep well. I love you. G'night."

Smiling, Leonard placed his phone down on the nightstand. His old nightstand. It was odd, being in this bed, but knowing it was no longer his. Amy had kindly changed the sheets for him to ones he had left as spares for her, should she forget to bring her own when she had moved in, having decided it kinder to let him sleep in a bed rather than on the couch like she'd originally planned. It was strange, being here, and not being in bed with Penny. Especially in his _old _bed. It had been nice to hear her voice over the phone but he definitely preferred it being the two of them together rather than apart in any way - that was something he had known for a long time, but putting it into practice after all of this was definitely strange. He knew he wouldn't spend every single night with Penny, but this first one was definitely difficult.

Closing his eyes, Leonard sighed. He hoped he'd get to sleep soon. He was exhausted; he'd forgotten how much energy the excitement of intense video gaming took out of him. But he had this niggling feeling that his not being with Penny tonight might make sleep more difficult. From what he'd learned, and judging from her phone call, sleep wasn't going to come easily for Penny either. That was something that hardly helped in his will for sleep. Still, he knew it was slightly ridiculous that he should be so worried about this. At least he would see her tomorrow, and they could have a relaxing weekend of resting and an early night if needed.

* * *

"This was nice, Leonard." Sheldon stated with a small, timid smile, as though he didn't want to admit how much he'd enjoy having his old roommate stay in the room next door, but still wanted him to know because it was important - and he had, after all, missed Leonard and him being in the apartment. He was enjoying living with Amy, but Leonard being there and part of his morning routine, even it was just for one time, had brought back a sense of familiarity and comfort.

"It was." Leonard agreed. "It was good to be back, even if only for a night."

"Yes." Sheldon gave a nod. "Though you probably missed Penny."

"Yeah, I did." Leonard smiled sadly. "Did you miss Amy?"

"Strangely, I did. There is something comforting about kissing her goodnight before bed. However, fortunately I had my friends here to distract me."

"Whoa, wait, hold on," Leonard put up a finger. "What do you mean, 'kissing her goodnight' - you guys do that?"

"Yes, Leonard. We kiss goodnight." Sheldon stated, shaking his head, almost snarkily, just like his old self. "Grow up."

Smirking, Leonard brought his hand back down to his side. "Well aren't you two just upholding your status as Pasadena's power couple perfectly."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Never mind."

"Alright. I won't mind."

"Amy will be back soon, so I'll get going." Leonard patted his pockets to make sure he had his car keys and wallet in there still, before bending to pick up his overnight bag. "I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Yes, I will be outside at the usual time." Sheldon nodded, opening the door for his guest - something that felt strange, but felt compelled to do out of politeness to his friend. "Thank you for coming, Leonard."

"Thanks for letting me stay. And for having the coffee on in the morning."

"No problem." Sheldon fidgeted his hands together nervously for a moment. "And please thank Penny for organizing her girls night and suggesting you stay over here."

"I will." Leonard smiled. "Okay, see you."

"Goodbye, Leonard. Have a safe journey home."

_Home, _Leonard thought as he gave a small wave and turned to leave. It was strange how he so easily adjusted to calling his and Penny's apartment home, but perhaps it was just because it was meant to be that way. The thought put a wide smile on his face, one which stayed there as he drove home.


End file.
